Treasures of Zakynthos art at the Louvre “Paris-Athens” Exhibition | By Ioannis-Porphyrios Kapodistrias
Exhibition entitled “Paris – Athens. The Birth of Modern Greece, 1675-1919 “is organized by the Louvre Museum on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the Greek Revolution and the 200th anniversary of the response of Aphrodite of Milos to its permanent collection.
The exhibition will be an opportunity for people to discover an unknown Greece: the Byzantine, the orthodox but also the bourgeois, escaping from the already known classical antiquity.
The Louvre borrowed works from the National Gallery, the Benaki Museum, the French School of Athens, the Byzantine and Christian Museum and the Ephorates of Antiquities of Eastern Attica, Ilia, Fokida, Larissa, Kastoria, Heraklion, Cyclades,
The exhibition will run from September 30, 2021 to February 7, 2022.
The Zakynthian exhibits
Among the 356 items that will be exhibited in the periodicals of Hall Napoléon are three portable icons of post-Byzantine art from the Museum of Zakynthos. The works traveled from Zakynthos to Paris last May. These are:
• “The crossing of the Nile river”, chest (of unknown origin) from the old Museum, late 17th c.
• “The prophet Jonah”, shield from the church of Agios Spyridon of Flampouriaris, 18th c.
• “The Resurrection”, by Nikolaos Kantounis (1768-1834), from the church of Agios Georgios of the Nuns.
Taking a look at the Zakynthian works that will be presented in the exhibition, it is concluded that their selection is by no means random. The above portable icons are typical examples of post-Byzantine aesthetics that dominated the ecclesiastical art of Zakynthos from the end of the 17th to the 18th century. Common points of all three works are the plasticity of the movements, the striking colors and the intense expressions of the figures they depict.
Bibliography:
Mylona A. Zoi, Museum of Zakynthos, 1998, Athens.
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