Ο Διονύσιος Σολωμός και οι ευρωπαίοι εικαστικοί καλλιτέχνες: Παράλληλες εικόνες της Ελληνικής επανάστασης

Abstract

The various paintings created by European artists depicting scenes of the Greek War of Independence bear the traits of the Romantic and the Neoclassical movement in art. These paintings link this particular aspect of Greek history to the European history of art, to the period of Romanticism in particular, since the major romantic painter Eugene Delacroix has painted several works with this subject matter. Paintings such as Lα Liberte sortant de ruins de Missolonghi by Delacroix or Lα Missolongienne by de Lunsac relate to the illustration of concepts such as the quest of freedom, facts such as the participation in the Exodus of Messolonghi as well as the subsequent massacre of its defenders. This same historical period is also depicted ία the work of poets like Dionysios Solomos. The application of colour in the human forms illustrated in the paintings can be paralleled to the description of human figures in the poems of  Solomos Ode to Lord Byron, Hymn to Freedom, and The Free Besieged, as if these paintings have been created as illustrations of the poems. The dark colours of the background in the paintings by Delacroix can be linked to verse pointing to the participation of nature in the events narrated by the poet. The movement of human bodies or the expression of faces in the paintings can also be matched in verse. The events in the island οf Chios in 1822 led Delacroix to paint his famous painting οf 1824; the Siege of Messolonghi, the participation of Byron in the struggle οf its inhabitants as well as the generalized fighting throughout the Greek territory was depicted in European painting and Greek poetry οf the early 19^th century, thus forming a serious historical source for this particular period οf Greek history. Romanticism, providing the common ground for literary and artistic research, led Solomos and Delacroix to a similar choice οf expressive means.