Art History [Istoria tis Technis] journal
corpus
Fotis Kontoglou and Spyros Papaloukas: the chronicle and the bitter end of a friendship
Evgenios D. Matthiopoulos
The article is a brief discussion of the friendship which developed between the two artists from 1913, when they studied together at the School of Fine Arts in Athens, until 1927, the year of their collaboration for the stage designs of Antonios Matesis’ theater play Vasilikos, at the Professional School of Theater, under the direction of Fotos Politis. The designs were actually made only by Papaloukas, who after the performance published an account of the actual events in the press. Kontoglou was piqued and retorted scathingly, accusing his former friend of opportunism and slandering him with a secret agenda: His exclusion from the iconography contract of the Amfissa cathedral, that was based on his drawings, which Papaloukas merely coloured.
Eugenios Matthiopoulos is Professor in Art History at the Department of History and Archaeology of the University of Crete and an associate researcher at the Institute of Mediterranean Studies – I.T.E. He has published studies and edited volumes on the history of Greek art, art criticism and issues of historiography and art history theory: The Concept of «Generation» in the Periodization of History, Literary History and Art History, (PEK, 2019) (in Greek). Parthénis. The life and work of Costis Parthenis (K. Adam, 2008) (in Greek). J. Mita. The life and work of Yannis Mitarakis (Benaki Museum, 2006) (in Greek). The art feathered in suffering (Potamos 2005) (in Greek). During this period he is studying the institution of the Panhellenic Art Exhibition (1938-1987). [matthiopoulos@uoc.gr]
Between realism and propaganda: military painting by Georges Bertin Scott on the Balkan wars
Virginia Mavrika
Georges Bertin Scott (1873-1943), a French military painter who was a correspondent and illustator of the L’Illustration magazine, was the only Western European artist to systematically depict the Balkan wars of 1912-13. During the First Balkan War he followed the Bulgarian army and focused on the war’s tragic aspects, while in the Second Balkan War he undertook the depiction of the Greek army’s operations at the invitation of King Constantine, emphasizing on the king’s military actions. The numerous photographs he took during the campaigns reveal the contribution of this medium to realistic compositions which now serve also as historical evidence. On the other hand, the comparison obetween photographs and paintings sometimes reveal the falsification of reality in order for propaganda and ideological expediencies to be served. The popularity of his works amongst members of the Greek royal family and bourgeois society sparked heated public discourse about the «legal right» of Greek artists to be the only ones involved in works depicting national struggles and critiscism against the attachment of the country’s higher social circles to academic art. This rivalry reflected the hard competition for orders for works of art and monuments honouring the Balkan wars but also deeper differences between the monarchy and the liberal government of E. Venizelos concerning cultural policy. Scott produced during the Balkan Wars pieces of art that demonstrate his flexibility to depict war in different ways: as news recording, idealistic depictions, disturbing reminders of war brutality, always adapted to the demands of his respective customer. Overall, his work expressed and foresaw aspects of European history and military art shortly before the outbreak of World War I.
Virginia Mavrika holds a PhD in Art History from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and works at the Ministry of Culture & Sports. She has worked as a curator at the Museum of the City of Athens/Vouros-Eutaxia Foundation and as a lecturer at Greek universities. Her research interests focus on the arts and architecture mainly of the 19th and early 20th century, modern Greek religious painting, the reflection of national and political ideologies in art, late Ottoman architecture and cultural management. [vmavrika@gmail.com]
De ludo scaccorum. Interpretative readings of the depiction of the game of chess in Western European art (II)
Michail Chatzidakis
The present study attempts to provide a series of interpretative readings of the presence of chess motifs in Western European art of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the Baroque. The hierarchical structures that govern chess play have always been offered for the formation of models of metaphorical interpretation, with symbolic-allegorical, sociological, ethical, religious-political and cosmological references. The bipolarity of black-and-white and the game’s war character with the exclusive help –in contrast to other board games- of critical thinking, made out of the chess-motif a viable and very popular topic for reflection on broader themes. concerning the transience of human existence (memento mori) the (eternal) male-female love-battle and in the field of political iconography the military domination in times of intense religious-political tensions and the hierarchical structure of social construction in the search for a more just and fairer model of (totalitarian) governance.
Michail Chatzidakis (Ph.D 2012) is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institut für Bild – und Kunstgeschichte at the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin. His research focuses on Medieval, Italian Renaissance and Baroque art with special emphasis on the field of the reception and transformation of antiquity during the blooming of the antiquarian studies. He is the author of Ciriaco d’Ancona und die Wiederentdeckung Griechenlands im 15 Jh. (Petersberg 2017). [michail.chatzidakis@culture.hu-berlin.de]
ΙΣΤΟΡΙΑ ΤΗΣ ΤΕΧΝΗΣ 