THEOFILOS HADJIMICHAEL (1871-1934) Le maréchal du Péloponnèse Theodoros Kolokotronis

THEOFILOS HADJIMICHAEL (1871-1934)
Le maréchal du Péloponnèse Theodoros Kolokotronis
pigments naturels sur mur contrecollé sur toile
181 x 177 cm. (71 1/4 x 69 11/16in.)

natural pigments on wall mounted on canvas
Provenance
D. Taktikos collection, Mytiline.
Private collection, Athens.

Expositions
Athens, Hellenic American Union, An Exhibition of Murals and Paintings by Theophilos, March 17 - April 10, 1970 (listed in the exhibition catalogue, no. 26).

Littérature
D.A. Kokkinos, History of Modern Greece, vol. I, Mellissa editions, Athens 1970, p. 375 (illustrated).

A national treasure, this monumental work which pays homage to a giant of the 1821 Uprising, is one of the few surviving wall paintings by Theofilos, rescued from decay and destruction, and transferred onto panel from its original wall in a village on the island of Lesvos (Mytilene).

Leading military hero of the War of Independence, Theodoros Kolokotronis (1770-1843) was a tough klephtic chieftain and a remarkable individual committed to the idea of freedom. Celebrated writer Nikos Kazantzakis described him as a true leader of the Greek race: he had faith, optimism, tenacity, valour, a certain practical mind, and a deceptive versatility, like Odysseus. He had both impulse and restraint, he knew how to retreat so that he could advance; hemmed in by enemies he was forced to mobilise all his bravery and wile so that the race would not be lost.¹ Victor over two large Turkish armies—at Valtetsi and Dervenakia—he achieved legendary status and laid the foundations for the successful outcome of the long struggle for independence.

Here, Kolokotronis is presented on horseback in full regalia, recalling the artist's representations of Byzantine Emperor Constantine Palaiologos or Alexander the Great. This correlation shows how Theofilos, with his instinctive knowledge and keen sense of historical past, could easily migrate from one era to another, capturing bygone glory as a form of eternity constantly reborn.
The Greek hero is wearing his signature British Napoleonic helmet with gold-plated bronze decorations, which dates from the time he was serving under the command of Richard Church in the 1st Regiment Greek Light Infantry in the Ionian Islands (1810-1816). He's also sporting the characteristic fustanella kilt—the same white highland garb the painter himself wore when he left Smyrna for Athens to voluntarily enlist in the 1897 campaign against Turkey and which eventually became his signature attribute.

The iconography is based on Lazaros Sochos's famous equestrian statue of Kolokotronis which was awarded a gold medal in Rome in 1900. The horseback hero does not have the passive or indifferent posture usually associated with equestrian statues. He is not portrayed as a triumphant conqueror but, rather, as a true leader of his people showing them the way forward.²

The inscription at the upper left, reading "the field-marshal of the Peloponnese Theodoros Kolokotronis from 1827 to 1830," reflects the painter's desire to provide a full description of his subjects by leaving nothing obscure. This piece of information is a vehicle of initiation into the artist's vision; a means of rendering more tangible to the spectator's imagination the world of gallantry and legend they are invited to contemplate.

¹. See N. Kazantzakis, Travels in Greece (Journey to the Morea), London 1966. See also P.H. Paroulakis, The Greeks: Their Struggle for Independence, Hellenic International Press, Australia, 2000.
². See C. Christou, M. Kouvakali-Anastasiadi, Modern Greek Sculpture 1800-1940, Commercial Bank of Greece edition, Athens 1992, p. 62.