admin, Author at Teacher Curator

Angelic Musicians

April 9, 2021

by admin Art Powerpoints Renaissance

**Domenicos Theotokopoulos,** 1541-1614
**The Concert of the Angels,** c. 1608-1614, oil on canvas, 115-217 cm, National Gallery – Alexandros Soutsos Museum – Evripidis Koutlidis Foundation, Athens https://www.nationalgallery.gr/en/painting-permanent-exhibition/painting/domenicos-theotokopoulos-el-greco/the-concert-of-the-angels.html
**Together with…**
**The Annunciation,** 1614, oil on canvas, 2.940,00×2.090,00 mm, Banco Santander, Spain
https://el.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%91%CF%81%CF%87%CE%B5%CE%AF%CE%BF:Domenikos_Theotokopoulos,_El_Greco_-_The_Annunciation_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

Domenicos Theotokopoulos is in my heart. I find him an attractive personality in every aspect… talented, educated, ambitious, curious, adventurous, persistent… “Art is everywhere you look for it, hail the twinkling stars for they are God’s careless splatters…” he wrote and I think of his Angelic Musicians, shining like flickering stars, in the National Gallery in Athens. http://elgreco.net/el-greco-quotes.jsp and https://www.nationalgallery.gr/en/painting-permanent-exhibition/painting/domenicos-theotokopoulos-el-greco/the-concert-of-the-angels.html

Domenicos Theotokopoulos was a Cretan Greek, born in Handaka-Candia, present-day Herakleion, part, at the time, of the thriving Republic of Venice. Archival research in Venice showed that between 1526-28 his family relocated from Chania to Handaka where in 1541 Domenicos was born. His orthodox-Greek family belonged to the upper-middle class, as his father, Giorgos Theotokopoulos, worked for the government of the Venetian Republic, most probably as a merchant and a tax collector. Very little is known of Domenicos’s mother and early childhood. He was undoubtedly talented, and his father, realizing it, placed him as an apprentice in a painter’s workshop to learn this profitable trade. The name of his teacher is unknown, but judging from Domenicos’s earliest paintings, he was a great master of the Post-Byzantine Cretan School. Crete at the time was the center of a thriving artistic community and understanding the artist’s early influences and style is important in decoding his later work! https://www.historical-museum.gr/webapps/elgreco/xronologio.php?lang=en

By 1567/8 Theotokopoulos travelled to Venice, by 1570, he was in Rome, by 1576 he moved to Spain and in 1577 the artist settled in Toledo, where he found his spiritual home and remained for the rest of his life. He died on the 7th of April 1614, admired for his unique fluid style, temperamental character and humanist education. One of his friends and admirers, Hortensio Félix Paravicino y Arteaga (1580-1633) the Spanish poet, preacher and a member of the Trinitarian Order, wrote for the artist “O Greek divine! We wonder not that in thy works / The imagery surpasses actual being.” Paravicino also wrote, foreseeing Theotokopoulos’s legacy “Future generations will admire his strange genius, but for centuries he will not be imitated.” http://www.nccsc.net/essays/spanish-style

I would like the reader of this BLOG POST, titled Angelic Musicians, to focus on two paintings. One of them is in Athens and is titled The Concert of the Angels, the other is in Madrid, and is an Annunciation scene. Now imagine them together and you will see one of the last, if not the last painting, the artist created but never finished. The original painting, an Annunciation scene, was commissioned for the Chapel of the Hospital of St. John the Baptist outside the walls of Toledo. Today, separated, the product of 19h century vandalism, may look slightly odd, but still, enthral the viewer with their unique “beauty.”

The Concert of the Angels in Athens is for me a wonderful depiction of an imaginary, celestial concert, full of energy and vibrato. Domenicos Theotokopoulos, the so-called El Greco, loved music and treated it with respect. The painting in Athens shows a musical ensemble with seven “ecstatic” angels, reading music, singing or playing the spinet, a harp, a flute and a viola da gamba. I wonder what kind of music Domenico enjoyed most, and which musician of his time he favoured… https://www.nationalgallery.gr/en/painting-permanent-exhibition/painting/domenicos-theotokopoulos-el-greco/the-concert-of-the-angels.html

The artist uses swift brushwork and swaying movement in postures and robes to create excitement in his composition. Like tongues of fire, his swirling figures look more like spiritual beings than real bodies…

The colour palette that the artist uses is another distinctive characteristic of his mannerism. The colours are iridescent but bold. He uses oranges in red and green and yellow/gold in blue. Tints and shades are juxtaposed. Values of high or low intensity are treasured. Theotokopoulos’s final Annunciation was never finished but whether you see its upper part in Athens or the actual Annunciation part in Madrid, its expressive power is unquestionable.

For a PowerPoint on Theotokopoulos’s paintings of the Annunciation, please … Click. HERE!

The National Gallery – Alexandros Soutsos Museum – Evripidis Koutlidis Foundation in Athens has uploaded a wonderful (in Greek) Video to watch… https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=316373302403183

**Domenicos Theotokopoulos,** 1541-1614
**The Annunciation,** 1614, oil on canvas, 2.940,00×2.090,00 mm, Banco Santander, Spain
https://el.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%91%CF%81%CF%87%CE%B5%CE%AF%CE%BF:Domenikos_Theotokopoulos,_El_Greco_-_The_Annunciation_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

Odilon Redon and Pandora’s Box

April 6, 2021

by admin 20th century Art Art Powerpoints

**Odilon Redon,** 1840-1916
**Pandora,** 1910/1912, oil on canvas, 143.5 x 62.9 cm, NGA, Washington DC, USA https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.46531.html#bibliography

It is nature also who orders us to obey the gifts she has given us. Mine have led me to dreams; I submitted to the torments of imagination and the surprises she gave me under my pencil; but I directed and led those surprises in accordance with the laws of the organism of art which I know, which I feel, with the single goal of producing in the spectator, by sudden attraction, the whole evocation, and the whole enticement of the uncertain within the confines of thought… writes Odilon Redon in his journals To Myself: Notes on Life, Art, and Artists… and I think of Odilon Redon and Pandora’s Box in Washington DC, at the National Gallery. https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/288740.Odilon_Redon

Odilon Redon is one of my favourite artists. As a student, I knew little of him. As a young teacher of Art History I hardly ever used his work… until, preparing for a Lesson Plan on the Myth of Pandora, I rediscovered his Pandora painting at the NGA and the Museum’s wonderful suggestions for Student Activities. My students responded positively to his imaginary world… and I was hooked!

**Odilon Redon,** 1840-1916
**Self-Portrait,** 1880, oil on canvas, 33.3×52 cm, Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, France https://www.wikiart.org/en/odilon-redon/self-portrait-1880

I like how Odilon’s work is described at ARTSY… “Known for his unique blend of artistic naturalism and symbolic subject matter, Odilon Redon was highly influential among the late 19th century French avant-garde circle. Working in charcoal, pastel, oil, and lithography, Redon created imaginative scenes that, while often based in the supernatural, were nonetheless executed in a highly representational manner. Redon considered this descriptive accuracy essential, writing “every time that a human figure does not give the illusion that it is … about to come out of the picture frame to walk, act or think, the drawing is not a truly modern one.” Redon was influenced by the poetry of Charles Baudelaire and Stéphane Mallarmé and admired by the painters Gustave Moreau and Gustave Klimt—as such he is often remembered as a Symbolist, though Redon preferred autonomy and never actually considered himself part of the group.” What more could I add… https://www.artsy.net/artwork/odilon-redon-ari

My students and I are captivated by the Myth of Pandora and the elusive way Odilon presents her story… Off-centre, Pandora stands in front of an atmospheric background, misty and hazy, luminous, ethereal and a touch, mysterious. The power of the artist’s mind creates organic forms, indistinct and intangible. The colours the artist uses are subtle, understated, yet joyous, warm and earthy. The box in Pandora’s hands is small, easily discerned buts not ostentatious… http://www.hellenicaworld.com/Art/Books/en/BeyondTheVisibleTheArtOfOdilonRedon.html

Painted by: The Niobid Painter
The Creation of Pandora, 460BC-450 BC, Attic Red Figure Calyx krater, attributed to the Niobid Painter, Archaic period, British Museum https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1856-1213-1

The myth of Pandora is beautifully told by the experts of the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC… According to Greek mythology, in the beginning the earth was free from toil and misery. The land was covered with flowers and the rivers flowed with milk and honey. Earth was inhabited only by men, who had been created by Prometheus. He made them of clay and modeled them after the gods, which angered Zeus, the king of the gods. When Prometheus offended Zeus again by stealing fire from heaven to give to man, Zeus exacted revenge. He ordered Hephaestus, the god of the forge, to create Pandora, the first woman. The gods gave her many traits including beauty, curiosity, charm, and cleverness. Hence her name “Pandora,” meaning “all gifted” or, alternately, “a gift to all.” Before he left Pandora on earth, Zeus handed her a beautiful box saying, “This is my own special gift to you. Don’t ever open it.” As Zeus anticipated, Pandora’s curiosity got the best of her, and she opened the box, ending earthly paradise. From the small chest flew troubles and woes—sorrow, disease, vice, violence, greed, madness, old age, death—to plague humankind forever. However, Zeus did not realize that hope had been secretly added to the box by Promethesus. When Pandora opened the box and released trouble and woe into the world, hope was there to help people survive. https://www.nga.gov/education/teachers/lessons-activities/origin-myths/pandora.html

For interesting Student Activities, please click and explore the NGA site… https://www.nga.gov/education/teachers/lessons-activities/origin-myths/pandora.html

The myth of Pandora’s box by Iseult Gillespie at TEDEd is worth exploring… https://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-myth-of-pandora-s-box-iseult-gillespie

For a PowerPoint on the Myth of Pandora Teacher Curator prepared, please… Click HERE!

**Odilon Redon,** 1840–1916
**Pandora,** 1914, oil on canvas, 143.5 x 62.2 cm, the MET, NY https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/437383

Lips Monastery in Constantinople

April 3, 2021

by admin Art Byzantium Student Activities Worksheets

**Lips Monastery in Constantinople,** **East Side of both South and North Churches,** 10h and 13h cent., Constantinople. Today the Byzantine Church is a Mosque known as Fenari Isa Cami. https://grandeflanerie.com/portfolio/byzantineistanbul/7/

“The frequent fires that have caused such terrible destructions in Constantinople have, in some respect, facilitated archaeological investigation and the study of Byzantine monuments. As is well known, the byzantine churches that have been converted into mosques usually stood tightly surrounded by wooden houses in the center of labyrinthic Turkish quarters. Following the disappearance of these obstructive houses, many Byzantine monuments have emerged as isolated ruins in the midst of wide open spaces… This has been the case with the monastery of Lips to which the Empress Theodora added towards the end of the thirteenth century the church of the Prodromos, intended as a mausoleum for herself and the family of the Palaeoplogi…” writes Theodore Macridy as an introduction to his article… and I am indebted for all the information he provides for the Lips Monastery in Constantinople and the Theotokos Panachrantos Church BLOG POST https://www.jstor.org/stable/1291214?origin=crossref&seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

**Nicholas V. Artamonoff,** 1908-1989
**Monastery of Lips,** Exterior view from the west, December 1935, Nicholas V. Artamonoff Collection, Image Collections and Fieldwork Archives, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection http://images.doaks.org/artamonoff/items/show/131

It was a summery June day of 907 (or 908) and Emperor Leo (Leo VI, called the Wise, 866-912) was on his way to the inauguration ceremony of a new Church dedicated to the Mother of God “Πανάχραντος.” The streets were quiet in the Lykos valley where Patrikios Constantinos Lips decided to commission his new Church taking into consideration novel architectural ideas. Constantinos Lips, aristocrat and military official, is at the peak of his career and he wants the Church of Πανάχραντοςto to reflect his status and… ambitions...

**Lips Monastery in Constantinople** (Today, Fenari Isa Camii, Istanbul), 10^th to 14^th century, Architectural Plan
http://projects.mcah.columbia.edu/medieval-architecture/htm/related/ma_theotok_of_lips_01.htm

The Church of Theotokos Panachrantos, or the North Church as is popularly known, is the oldest example of the cross-in-square domed type of Church Architecture in Constantinople. It is also a religious structure with a tripartite sanctuary to the east, and north to the west. The north and south vaults of the church terminate in huge windows that gloriously illuminate the interior of the church. The eastern vault extends over the church’s apse, creates a spacious Bema and is flanked by two tiny but elegant, quatrefoil structures that serve as the Prothesis and the Diakonikon. Apparently, the walls of this impressive church were further enhanced with marble veneering, both inside and outside. The Church of Theotokos Panachrantos was domed but the four columns supporting the vaults are missing, although three column bases survived the church’s probable fire destruction, and remain in their original positions. Equally interesting is the three-bay Narthex of the Church, which culminates, on its narrow sides, in shallow niches. Originally, the Narthex was preceded by a narrow exterior porch that covered the main entrance to the narthex. http://constantinople.ehw.gr/Forms/fLemmaBodyExtended.aspx?lemmaID=10907

**Photo Reconstruction of the North Church by A. Megaw with minor alterations…** https://www.byzantium1200.com/c-lipsos.html

The original Church of the Panachrantos, incorporated in its original design plan, had six additional Chapels. Two of them, single-naved, flanking the Prothesis and Diakonikon, are now lost in their initial state. The North Chapel suffered the most. Today only a part of its apse has been discovered and unearthed as the result of archaeological excavations. The Southern Chapel, on the other hand, located next to the Panachrantos Diakonikon, was partially saved, serving as the Prothesis of the, attached, thirteenth century Church of Saint John. Four more Chapels existed on the roof of the North Church. These Chapels, partialy destroyed during the fire of 1917, were not visible if you were inside the Church. Two of these Chapels, in quatrefoil shape, were situated over the western corner bays of the naos, and two more Chapels, located over the Diakonikon and Prothesis, were to be seen at the east end of the building. Access to the roof was through a staircase inside the tower south of the Narthex. https://www.thebyzantinelegacy.com/lips

Nicholas V. Artamonoff, 1908-1989
Monastery of Lips, Marble Cornice of the Apse Arch (North Church), May 1937, Nicholas V. Artamonoff Collection, Image Collections and Fieldwork Archives, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection http://images.doaks.org/artamonoff/items/show/131

The North church provides probably the largest and the most “outstanding collection of Middle Byzantine sculptural decoration in Constantinople” write Cyril Mango and Ernest J. W. Hawkins in their 1964 DO article. What survived shows “a wealth of carved ornaments both inside and outside… (unique quality in execution, and the use of) …an endless variety of motifs – highly stylized palmettes, and “bouquets” of different forms, fleurons, stars and crosses (peacocks and eagles) – (that create) a sense of unit on the decoration as a whole.” The style of sculptural rendering is crisp, with sharp ridges that are carefully “smoothed down to the flat background upon which the forward contours of the motifs are repeated.” Mango and Hawkins proceed to an amazing description of amazing discoveries. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1291216?origin=crossref&seq=6#metadata_info_tab_contents, pp. 304-311

The Church Constantinos Lips, built in the early 10th century, survived time, devastating fires and invasions. Attached to it, Empress Theodora, widow of Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos (r. 1259–1282), established a second Church dedicated to St. John the Baptist known today as the “South Church.” Constantinos’s Church was now part of a prestigious Nunnery, a Xenon and the Burial “ground) of the Paleologean family. (…to be addressed)

During the Ottoman period the Lips Monastery (South Church) served as a Mescit (a small mosque) and later, in 1636, after a fire in 1633, the South Church was upgraded to Camii while the North Church was converted into a Tekke (a dervish lodge). Two more fires down the path of history…the building was abandoned… but excavations in 1929, and a thorough restoration between the 1950s and the 1960s by the Byzantine Institute of America, gave it new life, so that today, known as Fenari Isa Camii, serves once again as a mosque.

An interesting Video of the exterior of Lips Monastery can be accessed … https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1703858606415101

For a Student Activity, please…Click HERE!

Monastery of **Lips: The North Church Sculptural Decoration,** early 10^th century, Istanbul Archaeological Museum. Photo Credit: Dick Ossemann, https://pbase.com/dosseman/image/159013722

The Labours of the Months: April

April 1, 2021

by admin Art Powerpoints Renaissance

**By an unknown Venetian artist…**
**The Labours of the Months: April,** about 1580, oil on canvas, 13.6 x 10.6 cm, National Gallery, London
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/italian-venetian-the-labours-of-the-months-january#painting-group-info

Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote: When April with its sweet-smelling showers / The droghte of March hath perced to the roote, Has pierced the drought of March to the root, / And bathed every veyne in swich licour And bathed every vein (of the plants) in such liquid / Of which vertu engendred is the flour; By the power of which the flower is created; / Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth When the West Wind also with its sweet breath, / Inspired hath in every holt and heeth In every holt and heath, has breathed life into / The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne The tender crops, and the young sun / Hath in the Ram his half cours yronne, Has run its half course in Aries, / And smale foweles maken melodye, And small fowls make melody, / That slepen al the nyght with open ye Those that sleep all the night with open eyes / (So priketh hem Nature in hir corages), (So Nature incites them in their hearts)… Geoffrey Chaucer first line for The Canterbury Tales refers to April… for The Labours of the Months: April cer/gp-aloud.htm

In London, at the National Gallery there are 12 small pictures, “painted on canvas and then each glued to a wooden panel. It is possible that they were made to decorate the recessed panels of a pair of doors. The paintings seem to have been planned in pairs with the figures facing each other and are currently displayed in two frames in groups of six. They show the ‘labours of the months’ – the rural activities that take place each month throughout the year.” This set of painted Doors combines simplicity in execution and extravagance in visual effect! https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/italian-venetian-the-labours-of-the-months-january#painting-group-info

The painting that may represent “sweet-smelling” April, shows a cooper making a wooden barrel. “He raises his mallet ready to strike the tool in his other hand. The work must be physically hard as he has tied a band of white cloth around his forehead to keep the sweat out of his eyes. The barrel will be used to store wine made from the grapes we see being pressed in September.” https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/italian-venetian-the-labours-of-the-months-april

Coopers were important craftsmen during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. They created wooden barrels to store wine, spirits and salted meats, buckets to draw and carry water, wooden bowls and plates for daily use, pails, churns and tubs for various agricultural or home-industry needs. Coopers, like the one depicted in the small London painting, were respected and valued Renaissance professionals.

Depicting the Labours of the Months was a popular artistic theme that was frequently used in the decoration of Cathedrals and Churches, Castles and Palaces, Psalters, Breviaries and Books of Hours across Europe during the Medieval and Early Renaissance period. Each month, depicting popular activities of peasants or/and the gentry throughout the year were sometimes paired with the Signs of the Zodiac circle. They would be either simple and small in size or large and elaborate, crafted in stone, wood, stained glass, painted in murals or often enough, painted in parchment. Many great Monuments and Libraries in Europe display fine examples of such artefacts for art lovers to enjoy. http://www.livingfield.co.uk/ages/labours-of-the-months/

For a PowerPoint on The Labours of the Months at the National Gallery in London, please… Check HERE!

Kanaris Burning the Turkish Flagship

March 23, 2021

by admin 1821-Greek Independence Day 19th century Art

**Nikiforos Lytras**, 1832-1927
**Kanaris Burning the Turkish Flagship**, 1873, oil on canvas, 143×109 cm, Averoff Gallery, Metsovo, Greece https://www.averoffmuseum.gr/kanaris-burning-the-turkish-flagship/?lang=en

“Mais le bon Canaris, donc un ardent sillon / Suit la barque hardie, / Sur les vaisseaux qu’il prend, comme son pavillon, / Arbore l’incendie ! But good Kanaris, whose daring boat / Is followed by a burning wake, / On the vessels he seizes, as his ensign, / Displays the blaze!” Writes Victor Hugo inspired by the daring deeds of Konstantinos Kanaris (anglicised as Constantine Canaris), distinguished as a brave fire ship captain. In 1873, Nikiforos Lytras painted Kanaris Burning the Turkish Flagship, honouring the great man. https://poesie.webnet.fr/lesgrandsclassiques/poemes/victor_hugo/canaris and https://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fr_canar.html

Every time I travel to Metsovo, in the Epirote mountains of Pindos, in Northern Greece, I visit the Averoff Gallery and stop in front of Nikiforos Lytras’s painting Kanaris Burning the Turkish Flagship. You cannot miss it… It is one of the most captivating 19th-century Greek paintings. https://www.averoffmuseum.gr/

Kanaris Burning the Turkish Flagship is an amazing departure from what Nykiforos Lytras studied in the Münchner Akademie der Bildenden Künste under the tutelage of Karl Theodor von Piloty (1826-1886). An influential Art School, the Münchner Akademie, attracted and trained artists from around the world to become leading painters, able to combine in their style, academic realism, baroque colourism and dark chiaroscuro. The artists of the Akademie were committed to monumental history paintings, landscapes, ethnography, portraits and still life. Naturalism in its depiction of human emotions was not among the School’s greatest artistic pursuits. http://www.artmag.gr/art-history/art-history/item/270-i-sxoli-you-monaxou

**Konstantinos Kanaris (1793 – 1877)**
Greek and Philhellene Fighters in the Greek Revolution of 1821, Portraits of the German officer and Philhellene Karl Krazeisen
This is a rare series of the lithographs of Krazeisen, which are hand-painted.
https://www.eefshp.org/en/portfolio-item/konstantinos-kanaris-1793-1877/

Lytras’s painting on the heroic deed by Konstantinos Kanaris is a historic painting with a twist! The artist moves away “from the romantic tendency that prevailed in the School of Piloty to a more naturalistic one in which the genre element played the dominant role.” According to the description provided by the Averoff Museum “Lytras` anthropocentric painting… was not concerned so much with the historical event per se. More so it was the projection of the heroic act carried out by brave persons worthy of emulation. The flaming ship is thrust into the distance to form the backdrop for the human action that is played out on a plane close to the viewer. Thus, in contrast to the ambiguous treatment of the background, where the ship disappears half-hidden by the smoke, the realistic rendering of the Psarians with Kanaris in the boat gives the work the immediacy and truth that interested the artist.” https://www.averoffmuseum.gr/kanaris-burning-the-turkish-flagship/?lang=en

Nikiforos Lytras, the painter of Kanaris Burning the Turkish Flagship in Metsovo, was born in Pyrgi, on the Cycladic island of Tinos, the son of a marble sculptor. An exceptional talent, Lytras studied at the Athens School of Art from 1850 until 1860 and then, as the recipient of a state scholarship, he continued his studies at the Munich Academy, in the class of Karl von Piloty. In 1866 Lytras was back in Greece and was appointed professor at the Athens School of Fine Arts, a position he held for 38 productive years. A conscientious teacher, but interested to experience new ideas and always open to new trends, Nikiforos Lytras became the leading Greek artist of his time, popular with the people and honoured by his students and fellow artists.

**Nikiforos Lytras**, 1832-1927
**Self-Portrait,** 19th century, oil on canvas, 51,5 x 43,5 cm, National Gallery of Athens

There are two paintings on the theme of Kanaris Burning the Turkish Flagship. The earliest, chronologically, was painted by Nikiforos Lytras and today is exhibited in the Averoff Museum at Metsovo, one of my favourite Art Museums in Greece. The second painting, by Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky, was painted in 1881 and is part of the E. Koutlidis Collection and is exhibited in Athens at the National Gallery. For a Student “Compare and Contrast” Activity, paintings, please… Check HERE!

**Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky**, 1817-1900
**The Burning of the Turkish Flagship,** 1881,oil on canvas, 162×223 cm, National Gallery of Athens https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Burning_of_the_Turkish_Flagship_by_Kanaris_-_Ivan_Aivazovsky,_1881.png

If you wish to learn more about the Greek War of Independence and the Bicentennial Celebrations in 2021, please VISIT the official Greece 1821-2021 Bicentennial site http://www.greece2021.gr, Twitter, https://twitter.com/Greece_2021, Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/Greece2021/, and Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/greece2021/?hl=el

Celebrating the Greek Revolution of 1821

March 19, 2021

by admin 1821-Greek Independence Day 19th century Art Art Student Activities Worksheets

**Johann Georg Christian Perlberg,** 1806-1884
**Drums for the War of Independence – Young Drummer in Missolunghi**, oil on canvas, 48.5 x 34.5 cm, Private Collection
https://www.dorotheum.com/en/l/2897144/ and http://ellas2021.eu/gallery.html

It was for these children that we fought… paraphrasing the words of Yanni Makrigianni, 1794-1864, Greek Revolutionary Fighter of 1821! Celebrating the Greek Revolution of 1821 and remembering the children who probably suffered the most.

Messolonghi… **View of the location where Lord Byron died,** 1848
ESTOURMEL, Joseph d’, Comte. Album du Journal d’un Voyage en Orient, Paris, Hellenic Library – Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation
http://eng.travelogues.gr/item.php?view=39968

“The torch that was Missolonghi shed its light as far as Vasiladhi and Klisova and over the whole plain, and even reached us. The flashes of gunfire looked like a host of fireflies. From Missolonghi we heard the shrieks of women, the sound of gunfire, the explosion of powder magazines and mines, all combined in an indescribably fearful noise. The town was like a roaring furnace” remembers Nikolaos Kasomoulis (1795 – 1872), who took part, fought and survived the Exodus. I hope Perlberg’s Young Drummer Boy, so romantically groomed, successfully survived the tragedy… https://books.google.gr/books?id=GhCLDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA26-IA16&lpg=PA26-IA16&dq=%22The+flashes+of+gunfire+looked+like+a+host+of+fireflies.%22&source=bl&ots=sDTZ6TqHS3&sig=ACfU3U1jIfv4avEDAVvPpC9AfvJbcVkRmQ&hl=el&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiE8qvu2bvvAhWDO-wKHTb_A5MQ6AEwAnoECAEQAw#v=onepage&q=%22The%20flashes%20of%20gunfire%20looked%20like%20a%20host%20of%20fireflies.%22&f=false

For our Youngsters… the National Historical Museum in Athens

**National Historical Museum** **of Greece –** The building was designed by Francois Boulanger to serve as the first Greek Parliament. Construction began in 1858 and ended in 1875. It served as the Nation’s Parliament until 1935 and became a museum in 1960. https://www.greece-is.com/national-historical-museum/

For celebratory mood and quality time with your youngster, you can VISIT the National Historical Museum site http://www.nhmuseum.gr/en and then go to http://www.nhmuseum.gr/el/ekpaideysi/ekpaideytiko-yliko/.

This is a “Colouring Page” Activity (in Greek BUT easy to understand and DO) on famous figures of the Greek War of Independence. It was inspired by the Exhibition The 1821 Greek War of Independence Retold in… Playmobil! The Activity is very EASY! http://www.nhmuseum.gr/el/ekpaideysi/ekpaideytiko-yliko/

To do the Colouring Activity Press on each picture you wish your child to colour – download it – print it – DONE! You can choose between heroes and heroines of the Greek War of Independence and celebrate an important moment in Greek History. From top to bottom, the Colouring Page Figures are: Theodoros Kolokotronis, Odysseas Androutsos, Laskarina Bouboulina, Konstantinos Kanaris, Manto Mavrogenous, Germanos, Metropolitan Paleon Patron, Andreas Lontos, Asimo Goura, Ioannis Makrigiannis, Domna Visvizi, Christos Kapsalis, Andreas Pipinos, Dimitrios Papanikolis

For our Youngsters… a List of Student Activities on the Greek Revolution of 1821 prepared by Greek Museums and Foundations… HERE!

For an easy to print Celebrating the Greek Revolution of 1821 Worksheet, please… Click HERE!

If you wish to learn more about the Greek Revolution of 1821 and the preparation for the Bicentennial Celebration in 2021, please VISIT the official Greece 1821-2021 Bicentennial site: https://www.greece2021.gr/en/ and/or https://www.greece2021.gr/

Unidentified Byzantine Building in Constantinople known today as Kefeli Mosque

March 16, 2021

by admin Art Byzantium Student Activities

**Nicholas V. Artamonoff,** 1908-1989
**Kefeli Mosque in Istanbul, Nave and Apse from the south,** March 1936, Nicholas V. Artamonoff Collection, Image Collections and Fieldwork Archives, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection http://images.doaks.org/artamonoff/items/show/245

The moment was grave… it was the 22^nd of July 838, hot and humid, and Emperor Theophilos, was besieged by the army of Caliph al-Mu’tasim near the hill of Dazimon. Earlier on “while the sky darkened and rain begun to fall in torrents… (he) saw that his opposite wing was in difficulties and (omitting to tell his junior commanders what he was about to do) led 2,000 men round behind the center to reinforce it… his unexpected disappearance immediately gave rise to a rumour that he had been killed. Panic broke out, followed – as always – by flight; and when the rain stopped and the light returned Theophilos realized that he and his men were surrounded.” The moment was grave… but when the Khurramite soldiers in the emperor’s entourage reportedly began planning to surrender the Emperor to the Arabs, Manuel the Armenian, Domestic of the Schools, commander of the elite tagma of the Scholae and de facto commander-in-chief of the entire Byzantine army, seized the Emperor’s horse by the bridle and threatening the confused emperor with his sword, forcibly broke through the Arab lines, and brought Theophilos to safety in the nearby village of Dorylaeum. Although Byzantine military history is not my forte when I researched the history of the Unidentified Byzantine Building in Constantinople known today as Kefeli Mosque and the name of Manuel the Armenian came up, I was intrigued and I did my reading… John Julius Norwich, Byzantium – The Apogee, 1993 Penguin Books, pp. 48 and Warren T. Treadgold, The Chronological Accuracy of the “Chronicle” of Symeon the Logothete for the Years 813-845, DOP Vol. 33 (1979), p. 180, 181 https://www.jstor.org/stable/1291437?read-now=1&refreqid=excelsior%3Ae308c8234dcf2fe514aff96de764bb09&seq=23#page_scan_tab_contents

**Codex Græcus Matritensis Ioannis Skylitzes or Madrid Skylitzes, The Byzantine army under Emperor Theophilos retreats towards a mountain (detail),** fol. 54r, 12th-13th centuries, Biblioteca Nacional de España, Madrid
http://bdh-rd.bne.es/viewer.vm?id=0000022766&page=1

It seems that there is a bit of a controversy between Byzantine Chronographers of what was the fate of the brave general… Some of the Chronographers report that Manuel the Armenian died of wounds that he received in the fateful battle of Dazimon (most probable) and was buried in the Monastery of Manuel in Constantinople, traditionally identified with the Kefeli Mosque. Other chronographers narrate how Manuel survived the battle, returned to Constantinople, took part in the second battle of Dazimon, and died, in the late 850s, a devoted Iconodule, during the reign of Emperor Michael III. Warren T. Treadgold, The Chronological Accuracy of the “Chronicle” of Symeon the Logothete for the Years 813-845, DOP Vol. 33 (1979), p. 182, 183 https://www.jstor.org/stable/1291437?read-now=1&refreqid=excelsior%3Ae308c8234dcf2fe514aff96de764bb09&seq=23#page_scan_tab_contents

**Unidentified Byzantine Basilica Building in Constantinople known today as Kefeli Mosque,** 9^th century, Istanbul
http://thearthistoryjournal.blogspot.com/2011/07/converted-byzantine-churches-in.html

Kefeli Mosque’s history is intriguing, to say the least. It is not yet established if it was originally part of the Byzantine Monastery of Manuel, founded in the mid 9^th century, rebuilt by Patriarch Photius, restored once more by Romanos I Lekapenos and used by Emperor Michael VII to retire after his deposition. Scholars are not even sure if the ΚΤΗΤΩΡ(founder) of the Monastery was indeed Manuel the Armenian, and if the Monastery was founded within Manuel’s residential complex. More importantly, scholars can not be certain if the surviving building was originally a Church or a Monastic refectory. It seems that all scholars agree that it was never the Katholiko of a Monastery.

**Alexandros Georgiou Paspates,** 1814-1891
**Byzantinai meletai topographikai,** 1877, Constantinople
https://ia800304.us.archive.org/0/items/vyzantinaimelet00unkngoog/vyzantinaimelet00unkngoog.pdf page 332 and https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Moni_tou_Manouil.jpg

The building was a basilica, according to Paspates a “κτίριον δρομικόν” and recent studies describe it as an interesting example of how the early Christian Basilica form developed or adapted during the Middle Byzantine period. It is believed that Kefeli Mosque was a 3-aisled basilica building with an apse (polygonal outside, but semicircular inside with two niches) facing north.

What can be said with certainty, is that the presented Byzantine building successively served the Greek Orthodox population of the city, the Catholics along with the Orthodox Armenians, and since 1630 the Muslim population of Karagümrük neighbourhood in Fatih district of Istanbul. Its name comes from Caffa (Kefe) in Crimea. https://ia800304.us.archive.org/0/items/vyzantinaimelet00unkngoog/vyzantinaimelet00unkngoog.pdf and http://suleymankirimtayif.com/pdf/ByzantineChurchesinIstanbul.pdf and http://www.istanbulvisions.com/kefeli_mosque.htm

An interesting Collection of Photographs of Kefeli Mosque can be seen in the ARIADNE – Digital Archaeology in Europe site put together by The German Archaeological Institute (DAI) Istanbul photo archive: https://arachne.dainst.org/project/fotoistanbul and https://arachne.dainst.org/project/fotoistanbul/search?q=%22Kefeli%20Camii%22 In addition, the Nicholas V. Artamonoff Collection, at the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection – Image Collections and Fieldwork Archives, is equally interesting to explore http://images.doaks.org/artamonoff/items/show/244

For a Student Activity, please… Check HERE!

**Map of Byzantine Constantinople: The Red star marks the location of Kefeli Mosque**

Clean Monday Feast

March 14, 2021

by admin 20th century Art Art Greek Art Museums Student Activities

**Spero Vassiliou,** 1903-1985
**Clean Monday Feast,** 1950, oil on wood, 125×78, Municipality of Rhodes Museum of Modern Greek Art
https://paletaart.wordpress.com/2012/08/06/%CE%B2%CE%B1%CF%83%CE%B9%CE%BB%CE%B5%CE%AF%CE%BF%CF%85-%CF%83%CF%80%CF%8D%CF%81%CE%BF%CF%82-spyros-vassiliou-1903-1985/#jp-carousel-4424

Could Isaiah (Isaiah 1:1–20) introduce us to the theme of Clean Monday with his Old Testament verses? “Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. Come now, let us argue it out, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” Are the following Matthew verses (Matthew 6:14–21) indicative of the Greek Orthodox festive, springtime atmosphere of Clean Monday? “When ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face, that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret…” I like to think that the painting Clean Monday Feast by Spero Vassiliou embodies Matthew’s recommendations and presents the glorious Greek Clean Monday at its best! https://bible.oremus.org/?passage=Isaiah%201:1%E2%80%9320&version=nrsv and https://bible.oremus.org/?passage=Matthew%206:14%E2%80%9321&version=nrsv

Austerity and Affluence… two words that best describe, in my humble opinion, Vassiliou’s painting Clean Monday Feast in the Municipality of Rhodes Museum of Modern Greek Art. Let me explain…

Austerity… in the green, tripod, metal table, centrally displayed, full of traditional νηστίσιμα(fasting foods) humble delicacies that mark the beginning of Lent… for the day, Clean Monday, when relatives and friends celebrate the upcoming period of humility, self-criticism and mutual forgiveness. Vassiliou’s green coloured table displays a piece of Lagana, the unleavened popular bread of the day, Throubes, sun-dried black olives, crunchy spring onions, the grocer’s halva with tasty almonds, the heart of tender lettuce, a deep yellow plate full of crisp, local “greens,” a white plate with salty, but so tasty red fish roe, and retsina, the Greek resinated white wine, popular in Greece for at least 2,000 years.

Affluence… in the love the artist held for the simple things of everyday life, insignificant at first sight, yet eloquent, meaningful and deeply moving for all the initiates of Greek Clean Monday rituals. Spero Vassiliou’s family tradition for Clean Monday was to invite his friends for a day’s feast on the roof(ταράτσα) of his house, below the Acropolis of Athens! The 1950 painting, titled Clean Monday Feast, is glowingly colourful, brightly sunny, gloriously festive!

**Spero Vassiliou working in his Studio…** https://www.archaiologia.gr/blog/2016/02/19/%CF%84%CE%B5%CE%BB%CE%B5%CF%85%CF%84%CE%B1%CE%AF%CE%B1-%CE%BE%CE%B5%CE%BD%CE%AC%CE%B3%CE%B7%CF%83%CE%B7-%CF%83%CF%84%CE%BF-%CF%83%CF%80%CE%AF%CF%84%CE%B9-%CF%84%CE%BF%CF%85-%CF%83%CF%80%CF%8D%CF%81/

Spero Vassiliou “studied painting at the “School of Arts” (later Athens School of Fine Arts) from 1921 to 1926. He was among the students who struggled for the reorganization of the School and who attended the studio of the newly elected professor, Nikos Lytras.” An active member of the Greek Artists Association, Vasiliou put together solo exhibitions as early as 1929, participated in creating stage design and costumes for about 140 plays, and won the prestigious Academy of Athens Award for designing the frescoes in the church of Saint Dionysius Areopagites in Athens. By the late 1940s, Vassiliou was an active member of the Greek intelligentsia representing a style linked to surrealism or pop art with a dominant dose of “aspects of contemporary Greek life in a picturesque and vivid way, sometimes inspired by folklore forms…” http://dp.iset.gr/en/artist/view.html?id=1080

**Municipality of Rhodes Museum of Modern Greek Art –** The original Historic Building in Symi Square
https://www.rodos-palace.gr/discover-rhodes/510/Museums-and-Antiquities/

The painting Clean Monday Feast by Spero Vassiliou is part of the Collection of the Municipality of Rhodes Museum of Modern Greek Art. The driving force behind the creation of the Municipality Museum was Andreas Ioannou, “a distinguished scholar of modern Greek art, writer and prefect of Dodecanese.” He foresaw the leading role Rhodes could play as a cultural center of international fame and decided, back in the 1950s, to create an emblematic Museum of Modern Greek Art. “For this reason he came in contact with the leading Greek artists, acquired their emblematic works and housed them in the historic building of Symi Square at the entrance of the Medieval City of Rhodes, which is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.” https://www.mgamuseum.gr/el/to-mouseio/

Today, the Municipality Museum has 4 very distinct Art Galleries. The original Historic Building on Symi Square is the center where Engravings of the 19th – 20th centuries, Publications and Posters will be exhibited. The “Nestorideion Melathron” houses the Museum’s permanent collection of 20^th century Modern Greek Art, including Vassiliou’s Clean Monday Feast. The Modern Art Centre, situated at the main thoroughfare in the Medieval Town “Palaio Syssitio,” has been chosen as the center for the first permanent exhibition dedicated to the famous and characteristic Rhodesian Ceramic Art. Finally, in 2010, the Museum inaugurated a new center dedicated to the cultural activities of the island. https://www.mgamuseum.gr/el/to-mouseio/

Get enthused by Spero Vassiliou’s Painting Clean Monday Feast and prepare a Student Activity inspired by the depicted Kites! Use a List of ONLINE sites to find out what best suits your students! Click HERE!

Teaching with Andrea Mantegna

March 9, 2021

by admin Art Powerpoints Renaissance Student Activities Worksheets

**Andrea Mantegna,** 1431-1506
**Camera degli Sposi, The West Wall: The Meeting, (detail of the left panel),** 1465-74, Walnut oil on plaster, Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Andrea_Mantegna_075.jpg?uselang=it

“How great is the effect of reward on talent is known to him who labors valiantly and receives a certain measure of recompense, for he feels neither discomfort, nor hardship, nor fatigue, when he expects honor and reward for them; nay, what is more, they render his talent every day more renowned and illustrious. It is true, indeed, that there is not always one to recognize, esteem, and remunerate it as that of Andrea Mantegna was recognized. This man was born from very humble stock in the district of Mantua; and, although as a boy he was occupied in grazing herds, he was so greatly exalted by destiny and by his merit that he attained to the honorable rank of Chevalier, as will be told in the proper place…” This is how Giorgio Vasari introduces Andrea Mantegna, the artist who was is “seen to have been wrought with much art and diligence.” Teaching with Andrea Mantegna is a set of student activities and worksheets inspired by the great Italian artist I admire. To visit Andrea’ Camera degli Sposi in the Palazzo Publico in Mantua was for years an unreachable dream. In 1988 along with a group of students/friends my dream came to fruition and I was finally, in the middle of this amazing room… moved, I confess, and emotional. http://www.travelingintuscany.com/art/giorgiovasari/lives/andreamantegna.htm

**Andrea Mantegna,** 1431-1506
**The presentation of Christ in the temple (detail-Probably Self-portrait),** 1465-1466, tempera on canvas, 86×67 cm, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Portraits_of_Andrea_Mantegna#/media/File:Andrea_Mantegna_049_detail_possible_self-portrait.jpg

When the time comes for me to introduce my students to Mantegna’s oeuvre I start with Giorgio Vasari’s final words. “Andrea was so kindly and praiseworthy in all his actions, that his memory will ever live, not only in his own country, but in the whole world; wherefore he well deserved, no less for the sweetness of his ways than for his excellence in painting…” and continue with the artist’s tutelage under Squarcione, who “made him practise much on casts taken from ancient statues and on pictures painted upon canvas which he caused to be brought from diverse places, particularly from Tuscany and from Rome. By these and other methods, therefore, Andrea learnt not a little in his youth…” I finish my presentation of Andrea Mantegna’s contribution to world art with his reaction to Squarcione’s criticism that “his pictures resembled not living figures but ancient statues of marble or other suchlike things.” My students are intrigued and a discussion takes place by how “This censure piqued the mind of Andrea; but, on the other hand, it was of great service to him, for, recognizing that Squarcione was in great measure speaking the truth, he set himself to portray living people, and made so much progress in this art, that, in a scene which still remained to be painted in the said chapel, he showed that he could wrest the good from living and natural objects no less than from those wrought by art. But for all this Andrea was ever of the opinion that the good ancient statues were more perfect and had greater beauty in their various parts than is shown by nature, since, as he judged and seemed to see from those statues, the excellent masters of old had wrested from living people all the perfection of nature, which rarely assembles and unites all possible beauty into one single body, so that it is necessary to take one part from one body and another part from another.” http://www.travelingintuscany.com/art/giorgiovasari/lives/andreamantegna.htm

**Andrea Mantegna,** 1431-1506
**The San Zeno Polyptych (detail),** 1457-60, Tempera on panel, 480 x 450 cm, San Zeno, Verona
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Details_of_Pala_di_San_Zeno_by_Andrea_Mantegna#/media/File:Andrea_Mantegna_024.jpg

Teaching with Andrea Mantegna References – References, a PowerPoint and Activities…

For the List of ONLINE References on Andrea Mantegna TeacherCurator put together, please… Click HERE!

For my PowerPoint on Andrea Mantegna, please… Click HERE!

I always feel confident discussing an artist with my students when I prepare my 7 Steps to Success Lesson Plan Outline…

For Student Activities (5 Activities), please… Click HERE!

I hope that Teaching with Andrea Mantegna will prove easy and helpful. Do you think it justifies my BLOG name Teacher Curator?

**Andrea Mantegna,** 1431-1506
**Ceiling decoration of the Camera degli Sposi (detail),** 1465-74, Walnut oil on plaster and fresco, Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Camera_picta_-_Ceiling#/media/File:Andrea_mantegna,_camera_degli_sposi,_1465-74,_volta,_oculo,_07.jpg

Boat of Greeks

March 5, 2021

by admin 1821-Greek Independence Day 19th century Art Art Greek Art Student Activities Worksheets

**Dionysis Tsokos**, 1820-1862
**Boat of Greeks,** 1844 to 1847, oil on canvas, 29×23 cm, Averoff Museum, Metsovo, Greece
https://www.averoffmuseum.gr/boat-of-greeks/?lang=en

“…Fill high the bowl with Samian wine! / On Suli’s rock, and Parga’s shore, / Exists the remnant of a line / Such as the Doric mothers bore; / And there, perhaps, some seed is sown, / The Heracleidan blood might own. / Trust not for freedom to the Franks— / They have a king who buys and sells; / In native swords and native ranks / The only hope of courage dwells: / But Turkish force and Latin fraud / Would break your shield, however broad….” Writes George Gordon Byron in The Isles of Greece and makes the best possible introduction for Dionysis Tsokos’s Boat of Geeks at the Averoff Museum in Metsovo. https://englishverse.com/poems/the_isles_of_greece

Dionysis Tsokos’s painting Boat of Geeks is closely connected to the fate of the small city of Parga on the Ionian Coast of Epirus. Parga, a small city/fortress, was always closely connected to the European political interests of the Ionian Islands. Since 1360 when the fortress of Parga was built with the help of the Normans who held, at the time the island of Corfu, the Pargians faced countless Ottoman attacks while they were under Venetian, French or British rule. In 1815 the inhabitants of the city of Parga rebelled against the French rule, under the instigation of the British, and a short period of British rule started. Seeing Parga as the stepping stone to achieving their final goal: to occupy the Ionian Islands, the British, in 1817, sold Parga to Ali Pasha for 150,000 pounds. https://www.kastra.eu/castleen.php?kastro=parga

**Edward Lear,** 1812-1888
**Parga,** *Journals of a Landscape painter in Albania etc*., London, Richard Bentley, 1851, 14×21 cm, Benaki Museum Library
https://eng.travelogues.gr/collection.php?view=283

What happened next is best described in the October 1819 edition of the Edinburgh Review… “As soon as the notice was given [of how much Ali was to be charged for their homeland] every family marched solemnly out of its dwelling, without tears or lamentation; and the men, preceded by their priests, and followed by their sons, proceeded to the sepulchres of their fathers, and silently unearthed and collected their remains, – which they placed upon a huge pile of wood which they had previously erected before one of their churches. They even took their arms in their hands, and, setting fire to the pile, stood motionless and silent around it, till the whole was consumed. During this melancholy ceremony, some of Ali’s troops, impatient for possession, approached the gates of the town; upon which a deputation of citizens was sent to inform our Governor, that if a single Infidel was admitted before the remains of their ancestors were secured from profanation, and they themselves, with their families, fairly embarked, they would all instantly put to death their wives and children, – and die with their arms in their hands, – and not without a bloody revenge on those who had bought and sold their country. Such a remonstrance, at such a moment, was felt and respected, as it ought by those to whom it was addressed. General Adam succeeded in stopping the march of the Mussulmans. The pile burnt out – and the people embarked in silence…” http://newsteadabbeybyronsociety.org/works/downloads/sale_parga.pdf and https://books.google.gr/books?id=7kNBAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA12&lpg=RA1-PA12&dq=Edinburgh+Review+Sale+of+Parga&source=bl&ots=hZxwnxM1hD&sig=ACfU3U3ac4JXKloQ18zhWLsbpAsGjXXTtQ&hl=el&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjug-2Ly5jvAhVfQhUIHaLnBgkQ6AEwB3oECAkQAw#v=onepage&q=Edinburgh%20Review%20Sale%20of%20Parga&f=false pp. 22-23

Boat of Geeks by Dionysis Tsokos depicts the final act of Parga’s sale by the British to Ali Pasha… “a boat full of refugees – resistance fighters, a priest, and a woman – floundering on the waves as it heads for foreign shores. One gallant lad stands embracing the mast and holding the Greek flag, gazing intently at the fatherland he is abandoning, while the captain holds fast to the helm.” https://www.averoffmuseum.gr/boat-of-greeks/?lang=en

**Dionysis Tsokos**, 1820-1862
**The Flight from Parga,** after 1847, oil on canvas, 37×47 cm, E. Koutlidis Foundation Collection, National Gallery of Greece, Athens
https://www.nationalgallery.gr/en/painting-permanent-exhibition/painting/the-years-of-othon%E2%80%99s-reign/history-painting/the-flight-from-parga.html

Dionysis Tsokos created two paintings on the theme of Greeks fleeing Parga after the shocking 1819 British sale to Ali Pasha. The earliest, chronologically, of the two paintings, is today exhibited in the Averoff Museum at Metsovo, one of my favourite Art Museums in Greece, the second painting, dated a little later is part of the E. Koutlidis Collection and is exhibited in Athens at the National Gallery. For a Student “Compare and Contrast” Activity on Dionysis Tsokos’s paintings, please… Check HERE!

If you wish to learn more about the Greek War of Independence and the Bicentennial Celebrations in 2021, please VISIT the official Greece 1821-2021 Bicentennial site http://www.greece2021.gr, Twitter, https://twitter.com/Greece_2021, Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/Greece2021/, and Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/greece2021/?hl=el