Ioannis Makriyannis, Vital Expression

Ιoannis Makriyannis constitutes a “great teacher of our language” according to the poet George Seferis, and has since remained a powerful national myth. His “Memoirs” charmed the aesthetics and the political concerns of a whole generation. Apart from this, we owe him a series of 24 paintings that “narrate” episodes from the Greek War of Independence of 1821.Τhose aquarelles, which were painted by Panayiotis and Dimitrios Zografou from Sparta, belonged to king Otto, were bought by Joannes Gennadius in Rome (1909) and describe vividly several episodes from the “Memoirs”.In this publication, a cooperation of Kapon Editions and Gennadius Library, the reader will discover these historical documents along with texts that analyze the hero of the Greek War of Independence, while another great personality is also highlighted, that of Joannes Gennadius who managed to save these paintings for us today.