1925, Konstantinos Parthenis, The Little Church of Cephalonia -- National Gallery (Athens)
From the museum label: The cosmopolitan background of this Alexandrian painter (Italy, Vienna, Paris) may well account for his idiosyncratic eclecticism. Parthenis succeeded, however, in incorporating these various influences into his own unparalleled style, marked by idealism, a certain "musicality" and rhythm, and the spiritual sublimation of the pictorial matter. His paintings executed in Vienna and in Greece during his first sojourn (1903-1907) reveal his strong attraction towards the Sezession, the Viennese version of Symbolism and Art Nouveau, and particularly Gustav Klimt. After his contact with the Parisian avant-garde (1909-1911) and his return to Greece, Parthenis interpreted the Greek light through brighter colors, influenced by postimpressionist painters and the Fauves. The French symbolists, such as Puvis de Chavannes and, in particular, Maurice Denis, appear to have influenced the religious compositions and the idealistic allegories, which are prominent in the artist's creations of the interwar period. In these works, we can also trace the impact of Cubism. Parthenis' mature paintings present us with an ideal vision of mythical and historical Greece, where Olympian deities, Byzantine saints and the heroes of the Greek War of Independence coexist in harmony within the ideological horizon of the "Generation of the Thirties" Parthenis' mature works recall supernatural acts and divine epiphanies. His ideal figures are suspended in a type of transcendental space, where time has been abolished and the remains of the visible world have turned into platonic archetypes, with the help of an impalpable technique.
1925, Konstantinos Parthenis, The Little Church of Cephalonia -- National Gallery (Athens)
From the museum label: The cosmopolitan background of this Alexandrian painter (Italy, Vienna, Paris) may well account for his idiosyncratic eclecticism. Parthenis succeeded, however, in incorporating these various influences into his own unparalleled style, marked by idealism, a certain "musicality" and rhythm, and the spiritual sublimation of the pictorial matter. His paintings executed in Vienna and in Greece during his first sojourn (1903-1907) reveal his strong attraction towards the Sezession, the Viennese version of Symbolism and Art Nouveau, and particularly Gustav Klimt. After his contact with the Parisian avant-garde (1909-1911) and his return to Greece, Parthenis interpreted the Greek light through brighter colors, influenced by postimpressionist painters and the Fauves. The French symbolists, such as Puvis de Chavannes and, in particular, Maurice Denis, appear to have influenced the religious compositions and the idealistic allegories, which are prominent in the artist's creations of the interwar period. In these works, we can also trace the impact of Cubism. Parthenis' mature paintings present us with an ideal vision of mythical and historical Greece, where Olympian deities, Byzantine saints and the heroes of the Greek War of Independence coexist in harmony within the ideological horizon of the "Generation of the Thirties" Parthenis' mature works recall supernatural acts and divine epiphanies. His ideal figures are suspended in a type of transcendental space, where time has been abolished and the remains of the visible world have turned into platonic archetypes, with the help of an impalpable technique.