Emmanuel
Lambardos,
a religious painter of the late sixteenth century is another Cretan artist.
One of his best works, the ‘Dormition of the Virgin Mary’, is kept in the
Byzantine Museum of Corfu.
Angelos the
Cretan
was one of the most famous icon painters of his time. A single painting by
Angelos, depicting St. Nicholas, is know to exist in Corfu in private
ownership.
George Klotzas
(1562-1608)
excelled in miniature painting. A panel depicting the ‘Last Judgment’ can be
seen in the Monastery Church of the Blessed Virgin Platytera.
The
great iconographer Michael Damaskinos, established a final form and
technique for ‘portable’ icons painted on wood. Three of his paintings can be
seen on the iconostasis in the first Municipal Cemetery Church.
The Corfiot Emmanuel Tzanfournaris (1573 –
1631) was to a certain degree influenced by Italian painting. A signed
icon is kept in the Convent of the two Saints Theodore. Another icon is in the
Byzantine Museum of Corfu.
A fine icon by Jeremiah Palladas is now
kept in the Byzantine Museum of Corfu.
A signed picture by George Kortezas in
Byzantine Museum of Corfu represents the Archangels Raphael, Michael and
Gabriel, and dates from the first half of the seventeenth century.
An icon by Emmanuel Scordilis
representing the Elevation of the True Cross is housed in the Byzantine Museum
of Corfu.
Father Emmanuel Tzanes is one of the most outstanding exponents of
Greek religious painting. He left Crete in 1646 when the island fell to the
Turks, and came to Corfu where he lived and worked until 1655. His icons may
be seen in the Byzantine Church of Saints Jason and Sosipater, the Church of
Panayia ton Xenon, the Byzantine Museum, the Church of San Nicola dei Vecchi,
the Monastery of the Blessed Virgin Platytera, the Palace of the Metropolitan
and in the Church of St. George.
Theodore
Poulakis
settled in Corfu around 1675 where he remained until his death in 1692. His
works are housed in the Byzantine Museum, the Monasteries of the Blessed
Virgin Platytera, Palaeocastritsa, the Church of the Blessed Virgin at
Kassiopi and in the Church of St. Nicholas.
The painter Victor is one of the most
productive painters of the second half of the seventeenth century. His works
may be seen in the Byzantine Museum, the Greek Orthodox Cathedral and in the
Convent of the two Saints Theodore.
Works by Father Philotheos Scouphos may
be seen in the Greek Orthodox Cathedral, the Convent of the two saints
Theodore, the Convent of the Blessed Virgin Kassopitra, the Byzantine Museum
and in the Church of the Resurrection.
A signed icon by John Moskos is in on
show in the Byzantine Museum of Corfu.
A few examples of work by Constantine
Contarinis may be seen in the Church of St. Spyridon, the Byzantine
Museum, the Greek Orthodox Cathedral, the Church of Panayia ton Xenon and in
the Church of St. Catherine.
Father Stephen Tzangarolas painted a
number of icons, most of which show a marked Italian influence. A few of his
works are kept in the Church of St. Catherine, the Byzantine Museum and in the
Palace of the Metropolitan.
Panayiotis
Doxaras
is considered the founder of a school known as the Septinsular School of
Painting, which set religious iconography free from all ties with
Byzantine tradition, thus leading Ionian religious painting definitely into
the main stream of Western art. His main work was the decoration on the
ceiling of the Church of St. Spyridon, painted in 1727. Another fragments of
his work can be seen in the Palace of the Metropolitan, the Convent of the
Virgin Kassopitra and in the Church of the Dominion of the Virgin Mary.
Some of the works of Panayiotis
Paramythiotis can be seen in the Churches of St. Antony and St.
Eleftherios, the Palace of Metropolitan and in the Orthodox Cathedral.
George
Chrysoloras’s
paintings are housed in the Byzantine Museum, the Palace of Metropolitan, the
Church of St. John the Baptist, the Church of St. Eleftherios, the Cemetery
Church, the Church of St. Nicholas, the Church of St. Paraskevi, the Church of
All Saints, the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mesochoritissa, the Monastery of
the Blessed Virgin, the Roman Catholic Cathedral and in the Church of St.
Catherine.
The Corfiot painter Spyridon Sperantzas
produced a great number of icons, which can be seen in several churches
(already mentioned) and also decorated some church ceilings (in the Church of
St. John the Baptist). His work can be dated between 1740 and 1775.
One of the most important works of Spyridon
Ventouras (1761-1835) is the ceiling of the Monastery Church of the
Blessed Virgin Platytera.
The ceiling in the Church of Panayia ton Xenon
is by Nikolaos Coutouzis (1741-1813) and also the icons on the
iconostasis of the Monastery Church of the Blessed Virgin Platytera.
Father
Nikolaos Cantounis (1767-1834) was the most productive painter of the
Ionian School of painting.
In Corfu are two of his works, both in the Monastery of the Blessed Virgin
Platytera.
The eminent sculptor and painter Paul
Prosalentis (1784-1837) became one of the founding members of the
Ionian Academy, and in 1811 he established the first private school of
Fine Arts in Greece. The following work of Prosalentis may be seen in Corfu:
the bronze statue of Sir Frederic Adam, the reliefs over the cornice at the
center of the main front of the Palace, the reliefs around the marble pedestal
of the bust of George IV, and the bronze bust of Sir Thomas Maitland.
Antonio Villas,
who lived in the early nineteenth century, was the best of our knowledge. He
became the Director of a
School of Architecture.
The Reading Society of Corfu owns a portrait of the British Lord High
Commissioner Sir Frederick Adam.
Dionysios
Veyias (1819-1884)
is considered to be one of the first to practice the art of engraving in
Greece. His portraits, icons and engravings may be seen at the Reading Society
of Corfu.
All
these are portrait, genre or landscape painters influenced by impressionism,
French ‘ecoles’ of painting or expressionism. They are Corfiot painters who
carried on unbroken the tradition of artistic dedication from nineteenth
century to our own century.
Spyridon Prosalentis
(1830-1895), Paul Prosalentis (1857-1894), Emilios Prosalentis (1859-1926),
Helen Prosalentis (1870-1911), Olga Prosalentis (1872-1945), Charalambos
Pachis (1844-1891), Vincenzo Boccheciampe (1856-1932), Angelos Giallinas
(1857-1939), Pericles J. Collas (1860-1883), Pericles Tsirigotis (1865-1924),
Markos Pieris (1865-1954), George Samartzis (1868-1925), Spyridon Scarvellis
(1864-1942), Stefanos Boulgaris (1881-1950), Stephanos Trivolis (1883-1944),
Markos Zavitzianos (1884-1923), Lycourgos Cogevinas (1887-1950) and Ten
Florias (1897-1969).
