After the Asia Minor Holocaust in 1922, he came to Athens with his family. His interest in art being evident from an early age, in 1929, before even beginning his studies, he published a series of drawings in G. Xenopoulos’ magazine “Η Διάπλασις των Παίδων,” under the pen name “Ακάμας.” From 1931 to 1936, he studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts, under Dimitrios Biskinis and Konstantinos Parthenis, while in 1934, still a student, he designed the sets and costumes for Euripides’ Alcestis, produced by Karolos Koun at the Laiki Skini. His first exhibition was organised while he was still as student, consisting of his early Cubist work at the Atelier in 1930, with the encouragement of Fotos Giofyllis; the following year, he exhibited at the Art Asylum. In 1949, he organised a major solo exhibition at Romvos Gallery, followed by a long period of absence and isolation, interrupted in 1975 by a solo exhibition at Ora Gallery in Athens. He also participated in group shows in Greece and other countries, including the Belgrade International Exhibition of Plastic Arts in 1977, the 1982 Europalia, and the Venice Biennale of the same year, and in 1978, a retrospective exhibition of his work was organised at the National Gallery.
A representative artist of the Generation of the 1930s, Diamantopoulos was inspired by both traditional and contemporary trends, especially Cubism. Focusing on the human figure, his works combine a monumental scale with Cubist models, in which prevail large aplats and a realistic style.
He took painting lessons in a liberal arts study room in Naples, Italy, doing legal studies at the same time. He travelled to Germany and continued his artistic studies there. After his return to his birthplace, Cephalonia, he worked as a librarian in the Argostoli Library while giving painting lessons in his spare time. He was also a writer, poet and musician. He wrote the verse drama, “Η Καταστροφή των Ψαρών” (“The Destruction of Psara”) in demotic Greek; it was performed for the first time in Argostoli just after its publication in 1883. He was also occupied with setting poems to music. In 1885 he exhibited three portraits at the Parnassos Hall and in 1888 took part in the Panhellenio Artistic Exhibition at the Zappeion Hall. The last years of his life were exceptionally difficult because of health problems and his dire financial situation.
A representative of Ionian island art of the 19th century, he was primarily involved with portraiture but also painted genre scenes and still lifes. Employing the Italian academic tradition as his starting point, he cultivated a poetic atmosphere in his work and frequently transcended the familiar aspects everyday life. In his portraits, he distanced himself from the established type of portrait common in the first half of the 19th century with it rigorously maintained poses, dark tones and standardized composition by sensitively choosing, in his most characteristic works, harmonious colors while placing his emphasis on a realistic rendering.
A painter of the Ionian Island School, and a son of the painter and art theoretician Panagiotis Doxaras. After 1715 he and his family settled in Zakynthos and then moved to Lefkada. In 1722 he went to Corfu where in 1729 he enlisted in the army of the Count M. von Schulenburg, while after the death of his father he went to Venice to study military engineering and painting. It is probable he was influenced by Giambattista Piazetta or Giovanni-Batista Tiepolo, who dominated the artistic life of the city of that period, but it is not known where he studied or with whom. He returned to Greece in 1738 and for a few years settled in Lefkada, while in 1745 he was made an officer in the state police on Corfu. He also served in Cephalonia and in 1752 settled once and for all on Zakynthos, where he remained till his death.
His most important works were the decoration of the urania (ceiling) of the church of Faneromeni in Zakynthos (1754-1762/1765) and Ayios Minas on Lefkada (1762), which were done according to western models. The urania of Ayios Minas was destroyed by fire in 1976 but was recently repainted with he help of surviving black-and-white photographs. The decoration of Faneromeni is of particular interest because instead of containing the usual representation of the Pantocrator, the Nativity, Dormition and Translation of the Virgin Mary are depicted, done in accordance with the models employed by Roman Catholic churches of the time. These representations, except for the Nativity, were destroyed by the earthquake of 1953, as were a number of prophets on the walls, which, however, it seems likely, were done by Stephanos Pasigetis, at least in their final form. Preliminary drawings for the representations are to be found at the National Gallery, while the surviving “Nativity of the Virgin Mary” is at the Zakynthos Museum.
According to the prevailing point of view, he was born in Koutifari, Mani, but in 1664/1665 his family settled in Zakynthos, which was then under Venetian occupation. There in 1685 he took lessons in icon painting under the Cretan painter Leo Moskos. Among his first known works is numbered his icon Christ as High Priest which he painted in 1691 for Our Lady of the Angels church in Zakynthos, later painted over by Nikolaos Koutouzis. In 1694-1699 he took part in the wars of the Venetians against the Ottomans and because of that was awarded the Order of Knight, while later he was also ceded land in Lefkada. From the turn of the century until 1704 he lived in Italy where in all likelihood he studied painting. Upon his return he settled in Venetian-occupied Kalamata where he stayed until 1715, the year in which the area came under Turkish domination. In 1719 he painted, in line with western models, the “Portrait of Count Matthias von der Schulenburg” (Athens, Private Collection); von der Schulenburg was the German Commander-in-Chief of the Venetian forces during the siege of Corfu by the Turks (1714-1718). This work, signed and dated, is numbered, along with the “Portrait of Schulenburg” in the Collection of the E. Koutlidis Foundation (1725), among the few unquestioned examples of the artist’s work. In 1727 he painted seventeen compositions for the urania (ceiling) of the church of Ayios Spyridon in Corfu, which were subsequently replaced by copies done in 1853-1871 by N. Aspiotis. Two of his eight children, Nikolaos and Dimitrios, also turned to painting.
This painter was also involved with the study, translation and compilation of theoretical writings on art. Thus in 1720 he translated in Italy the essay by Leonardo da Vinci “Trattato de la Pittura” (On Painting) and in 1724 he appended to the work the relevant texts of Leon Battista Alberti, Andrea Pozzo and others. In 1723 he completed Περί Ζωγραφίας (On Painting) which at first was thought to be an original work, but which more recent investigation has shown to be an anthology of translations of Italian texts from the 17th and 18th century.
The theoretical and artistic work of Panagiotis Doxaras, who launched Ionian island painting, also signals the starting point of modern Greek art by detaching it from the Byzantine and post-Byzantine traditions and getting it to adopt the principles of western European painting, both on the level of technique and the level of style, not to mention the broader perception of art itself.
Few elements are known from the painter’s life in Venetian-occupied Chandax, quite an important local art center during the 16th century. His date of birth is taken from his own testimony made during a trial in 1606 when he stated he was at that time sixty five years old; in addition, we know that in 1563 he was already a “master”, that is, an accomplished painter who was professionally exercising his art. From this first period of his artistic creation come the signed icons of the “Evangelist Luke painting the Virgin and Child”, “Adoration of the Magi” (Athens, Benaki Museum) and the “Dormition of the Virgin” (Ermoupolis, Syros, Church of the Dormition of the Virgin), in which the painter’s familiarity with the forms used in both the Orthodox and western tradition can be confirmed.
In 1567 or 1568 he left Crete for Italy where he remained, originally in Venice and later, in 1570, Rome, for about ten years. In Venice he came to know the work of the great teachers of the period, the aged Titian, Tintoretto, and Veronese, while in Rome he was influenced by mannerism. In Italy where he painted works such as the “Triptych of Modena” (Modena, Galleria Estense), “Adoration of the Shepherds” (Frederickssund, Museum J.F. Willumsen) and “View of Mt. Sinae” (Herakleio, Historical Museum), he entered the highest social circles and had the support of powerful patrons of artistic life, such as Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, the miniaturist Giulio Clovio and the librarian Fulvio Orsini, but without being able to secure any truly important commission.
Then he settled in Toledo, Spain, during the reign of Philip II, where he became established as a painter. Portraits and religious works constitute the main body of his Spanish production, among which are most of his masterpieces.During the last twenty-five years of his life in particular (1590-1614), he achieved the acme of his quests and conquests, while late creations such as “Laocoon” (c. 1608-1614, Washington, National Gallery of Art) or “View and Map of Toledo” (c. 1608-1614, Toledo, Greco Museum) are impressive for their iconographic innovations.
He was also a sculptor and architect while compiling theoretical texts on art which unfortunately have been lost.An artist with a humanist education, he produced unique work which is distinguished for its profound spirituality and bears the strong stamp of the intelligence of the creator himself, who is considered to be one of the forerunners of modern European art.
He originally studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts and in 1949 participated, with Alekos Kontopoulos and other artists who had turned to abstract art, in the founding of the group “The Extremists”. In 1954 he went to Paris where he completed his studies at the School of Fine Arts and the Grande Chaumiere Academy.
Working both in Paris and Athens and having started his exhibition activity in 1944 with a solo show at his studio and then at the Parnassos Hall, he continued to present his work at solo shows in Parisian and Athenian galleries as well as European countries and America while in 1984, a week before his death, a large retrospective was launched at the National Gallery. He participated in numerous exhibitions in Greece and abroad, among which the Sao Paolo Biennales of 1952 and 1967 and the 1982 Europalia in Brussels stand out. His work was also presented in exhibitions after his death including a retrospective at the Vafopouleio Cultural Center of Thessaloniki in 1994.
Involved primarily with painting and, on a more limited scale, sculpture and engraving, he started with portraits and quickly moved on to abstract expressionism and surrealist compositions, then cubist and geometric compositions and, at the same time, abstract sculptural compositions of plaster, corresponding to his painting. For a period his creations dealt with insects, little men, birds and plants which suggest an absurd world. Just past the midpoint of the Sixties he began to make his wellknown figure of a little man, which he originally repeated around a central representation and later made into a schematic and standardized figure, constituting a symbol and ironic means of social criticism, repeated in a number of variations. Using this midget as a focus he also created constructions, greater than lifesize sculptural compositions, environments and happenings, which he also transferred to clothes, fabrics and games.”
He studied chemistry at the University of Oxford and starting in 1907 took painting lessons at the Munich Academy under Gabriel von Hackl. He came to Athens in 1912/1913, after first visiting London and Paris. In 1917 he took part in the exhibition of the Society of Greek Artists and in 1931 exhibited with the Art Group. He also took part in the Venice Biennales of 1934 and 1936, as well as the Panhellenio of 1938. In 1961 a retrospective of his work was presented by the Zygos gallery.
He was primarily occupied with landscape and portraiture, leaving behind a limited amount of work of an impressionistic or post-impressionistic character, distinguished for its sensitivity and delicacy.
Descendant of a family from Bohemia, he was the son of an icon-painter and priest, Vikentios Pitzamanos, from whom he took his first painting lessons. In 1804, during the Russian occupation, he was in Zakynthos where he was training under Nikolaos Kantounis. During the same year having enlisted in the staff of the Russian General Steter, he drew a large geographical map of the island showing the fortifications of the harbor and town. In 1807, with the return of the French Protectorate, he was awarded the rank of sergeant in the Engineering Corps and, in the same capacity, he was involved with the study and execution of fortification works. The following year he directed topographic works for the drawing up of maps of the islands and later went to Albania to draw a map of its coasts and mountains.
In 1809 he visited Ali Pasha on a special mission and the same year, with the approval of the Ionian Senate, at the command of Napoleon and at the expense of the state, he went to Rome, where he studied painting and architecture at the School of Fine Arts. In 1812 he was unanimously proclaimed an honorary member of St. Luke’s Academy while the following year the designs he was making for Napoleon’s triumphal arch for his wedding ceremony and his victories in Germany were presented at the Capitolio and Napoleon awarded him the Order of the Union. In 1814 he went to Paris where he continued his studies in painting, sculpture, architecture and engineering, and met Adamantios Korais.
In 1818, at the invitation of the English High Commissioner Maitland, he was appointed Professor of Architecture at the Ionian Academy of Corfu while later, with General Adam and his entourage, he visited Constantinople and various parts of Greece, gathering information on the manners and customs. He also wrote a study in French about Constantinople and did drawings and water colors with ancient monuments, landscapes, portraits and costumes. In 1820 he wrote a manual, Περί αρχιτεκτονικής (On Architecture) and later was a guest of the British ambassador in Constantinople and executed various other painting and architectural works. During the same period, at the recommendation of Ioannis Capodistrias, he was invited by the Tsar of Russia and appointed architect to the Court. But while working there he fell victim to tuberculosis and was forced to leave, first to Odessa and then Italy. When his illness was declared incurable, he returned to Corfu where he died in 1825.
His work, in addition to the water colors and drawings, contains portraits which were made into copperplates in Rome, the emblems of the Ionian islands, mythological scenes in the house of S. Pitzamanos in Argostoli and the illustration of churches in Corfu and Cephalonia.
Son of the Italian Vikentios Lanza, he studied painting at the Athens School of Arts. He exhibited his works in Greece and Egypt. From 1909 until 1932 he taught drawing at the School of Arts.
He depicted archaeological sites and monuments in agreement with the romantic spirit associated with European travellers.
He studied painting in Munich, where he took lessons from Nikolaos Gyzis from 1883 to 1887, the year he returned to Greece. In 1891 he was appointed professor at the Evelpidon (Army Cadet) School and in 1910 preservationist at the National Gallery. He took part in group exhibitions in Athens (Parnassos Hall, 1901 1905, Greek Artistic Society, 1907) and in Alexandria (1905).
He is numbered among the avant garde Greek landscape painters at the end of the 19th and the opening decades of the 20th century. His work made use of the innovative doctrines of German impressionism.
He originally studied at the School of Arts from which he graduated in 1878. The following year he went to Munich and continued his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts. In 1891, at the onset of mental illness, he withdrew to his village and the following year died at the Dromokaiteio Mental Hospital.
He was mainly involved with portraiture done in the context of the academic technique of the School of Munich and presented his works at the Olympia Exhibition of 1875 and the Artistic Society of Munich in 1882 and 1883.
He studied painting at the School of Arts (1874-1880) under Nikephoros Lytras. At the end of his studies he taught art technique at public schools. He started to exhibit very early and took part in the Olympia Exhibition of 1875; he continued to participate in various group exhibitions such as the Panhellenic Artistic Exhibition of 1888, the Artistic Exhibition of Athens in 1899, the exhibition at City Hall in 1902 and the International Exhibition at Athens in 1903.
In his early works his interest was focused on genre scenes in which he adopted the style of Lytras. Later, following the trend of the times, he turned to the depiction of landscape and liberated himself from the influence of his teacher, rendering it with great freedom. He made an important contribution to this sector because his compositions, which depict the environs of Athens, bear witness to the landscape of the period. His artistic activity also included the wall paintings for the church of Christokopidis in Athens while in the context of his involvement with wood carving he worked in the 1880s with the Greek magazines Ποικίλη Στοά (Poikili Stoa) and Εστία (Estia).
He studied painting, first in Zante and then at the St Luca Academy in Rome. When he returned to Greece, he taught painting in Zante, Corfu and Smyrna. In 1875, he participated in the “Olympia” exhibition. A man of many interests, he spoke English and Italian, wrote poetry and copied works by great masters. He also made aquarelles, featuring scenes, poses and costumes of the refugees and fighters from the Greek mainland who sought shelter in the Ionian Islands during this period.
Iatras as a painter belongs to the Ionian School. He was mainly engaged in portraiture, seeking to idealize his figures, his work contributing to the stylistic changes happening in the latter half of the 19th century in the Ionian Islands.
Son of Ioannis Kantounis, doctor, poet and writer, he trained under Ioannis Korais and, most likely, Nikolaos Koutouzis who, according to tradition, expelled him from his studio out of jealousy. In any case, he always called himself an autodidact as can be seen in an inscription on his selfportrait (National Gallery). The influence of Koutouzis is obvious both in his work and in his private life since, following Koutouzis’ example, he was ordained into the priesthood in 1788 at the church of the Evangelistria in Zakynthos. Later, as a member of the revolutionary Filiki Etaireia (“Friendly Society”) he worked for the Greek Revolution and from May to October 1821 was exiled on the island of Kyras af to Dia, near Cephalonia, where he painted The Last Supper .
His work is made up of religious compositions and portraits. The religious part included paintings in the churches of Ayioi Pantes, Ayioi Apostoloi, Our Lady of Tsourouflis, Ayia Paraskevi, the Hodegetria and Chrysopigi on Zakynthos, which have not survived. In the Zakynthos Museum there are various paintings from the church of the Virgin Pikridiotissa, Ayioi Anargyroi, Ayios Georgios of Kypriana, Episkopiani, Ayios Andreas of Avouris, Ayios Antonios of Andritsis and others, while other paintings can still be found in their original locations at the main church of the Monastery of the Virgin Platytera on Corfu and the church of Ayia Aikaterini of Sina in Zakynthos. For the rendering of these compositions he used the work of Koutouzis as his model as well as the works of the Italians and Flemish which were in wide circulation as prints during that period in the Ionian islands. His portraits were also influenced by Koutouzis, and taken together these two can be considered the founders of secular painting, portraiture in particular.