Alexander III Wearing Tsarouchia: The Reception of the Great Conqueror in Modern Greek Art
ISPCS Conference Jerusalem, 06-07 June 2018
Guendalina D.M. Taietti University of Liverpool
Alexander III, Royal Tomb of Philip II, Vergina
From the left: Rhigas Ferraios, Pamphlet, 1797. Nikos Engonopoulos, The two Macedonians, 1977. Theodore Kolokotronis, helmet.
Theofilos (1870-1934) -> Born in Mytilene (Lesbos) in 1870, under the Ottoman Empire -> Three artistic periods: 1. Smyrna (age of 15?)
2. Thessaly: Volos and Pelion; meeting with Kontos (1897) 3. Mytilene: meeting with Tériade (1927) -> Artistic method: Research of Light and colour, frescos, bi-dimensionality, poor materials -> Subjects: Ancient and Byzantine history, mythology, Greek Revolution, heroic Hellenism, everyday life -> ALEXANDER VS PERSIA = KOLOKOTRONIS VS TURKS Rhomiosyne
Karaghiozis shadow theatre tradition
From the left: Theofilos, Alexander the Great in the year 222 BC; Constantine XI Palaeologus in the year 1453. Eugene Spatharis, puppets from the theatrical play Karaghiozis, Megalexandros and the cursed snake/dragon.
Theofilos, Alexander the Great, 1900 ca.
Theofilos as Alexander the Great, black and white picture.
Giannis Tsarouchis, Theofilos dressed as Alexander the Great, 1968.
Chrysanthos Bostantzoglou (1918-1996) -> Born in Constantinople in 1918, grew up in Athens. Joined EAM in 1942
-> Political cartoonist, painter, playwright -> First half of the 20th cent. Greece: a) Metaxas’ dictatorship (1936-1941) b) Involvement in World War II and German occupation (1941-1944) c) Civil war (1946-1949)
-> Artistic method/style: folk art (Karaghiozis, Theofilos) and surrealism -> Subjects: Ancient and Byzantine history, mythology, Greek Revolution FOLK HELLENISM vs KATHAREVOUSA and lofty, detached ‘high’ culture
-> Alexander = antiquity, Byzantine Empire, Greek Revolution, Phyllada, Karaghiozis, St George; folk and Orthodox tradition mixed together!
Bost, …We swear that Macedonia is Greek. The Oath of Alexander.
Bost, Alexander the Macedonian.
On the left: Bost, Erotocritos playing bouzouki. Here below: reconstruction of Alexander III’s helmet according to Plutarch (Alex. 16.7). On the right: woman wearing the traditional headdress of Roumlouki, Northern Greece.
Euthymis (Makis) Warlamis (1942-2016) -> Born in Veroia, Macedonia, Northern Greece in 1942; lived in Austria
-> Architect, designer, painter, sculptor, and art educator -> Interest in Greek matters: research project on anonymous architecture of the Aegean; several great art collections (Alexander, Thessaloniki, Mother Olympias, Mount Athos)
-> Renaissance artist: research of light; chromatic poetry; ‘endless’; simple, uncomplicated language -> Thessaloniki as European Capital of Culture in 1997: Warlamis launched the project Alexander 2000. THESSALONIKI AS SHOWCASE FOR ALEXANDER AND MACEDONIA’S GREEKNESS (FYROM?) -> Warlamis’ Alexander = Lysippos and Apelles’ type Folk hero, cosmopolitan Hellenism
Marble head of Alexander the Great, 3rd CBC, Archaeological Museum of Pella.
From Warlamis’ collection Alexander 2000
Alexander and Philip II
Makis Warlamis, Troy.
Alexander and Olympias
Alexander Buddha, homage to the school of Gandhara (Swat Valley, Pakistan), 1st-2nd CAD, local syncretism of Apollo, Alexander, Buddha.
Alexander Angel.
Alexander in Egypt.
Alexander in Babylon.
Thessaloniki, Alexander’s sister
Conclusions: ζει και βασιλεύει Theofilos, Bost, and Warlamis:
-> Art as a vehicle for Hellenism -> Insistence on the diachronic value of Hellenism -> Hellenism as a key to talk to people vs abstruse high culture
-> Alexander = a primary means to promote Hellenism artist’s life’s work
artist’s self-identification with Alexander
Thank you! All comments welcome!
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