MOUNT PARNASSUS BY SPYROS PAPALOUKAS

SPYROS PAPALOUKAS (1892-1957) 

Parnassus (2, 457m - 8,061ft)

Greece

In Landscape, Mount Parnassus, watercolor on paper, The National Gallery - Alexandros Soutsos Museum, Greece 

The mountain
Parnassus or Mount Parnassus (2, 457m - 8,061ft), in greek Parnassos (Παρνασσός) which means "the mountain of the house of the god", is a mountain of limestone in central Greece that towers above Delphi, north of the Gulf of Corinth. According to Greek mythology, this mountain was sacred to Dionysus and the Dionysian mysteries; it was also sacred to Apollo and the Corycian nymphs, and it was the home of the Muses. The mountain was also favored by the Dorians. Parnassus is one of the largest mountainous regions of Mainland Greece and one of the highest Greek mountains. It spreads over three municipalities, namely of Boeotia, Phthiotis and Phocis, where its largest part lies. Its highest peak is Liakouras.
This relation of the mountain to the Muses offered an instigation to its more recent "mystification", with the poetic-artistic trend of the 19th century called "Parnassism". The Parnassic movement was established in France in the decade 1866–1876 as a reaction to Romanticism with a return to some classicistic elements and belief in the doctrine "Art for the Art", first expressed by the poet Theophile Gautier. The periodical Modern Parnassus issued for the first time by Catul Mendes and Xavier Ricard contained direct references to Mount.Parnassus and its mythological feature as habitation of the Muses. The Parnassists, who did not exceed a group of twenty poets, exercised a relatively strong influence on the cultural life of Paris, particularly due to their tenacity on perfection of rhyme and vocabulary. Parnassism influenced several French poets, such as Baudelaire, but it also exercised an influence on Modern Greek poets, particularly Kostis Palamas and Gryparis.
The name of the mountain, (Mont Parnasse in french), was also given to an area of Paris on the left banc of the Seine, where artists and poets used to gather. Montparnasse is nowadays one of the most renowned quarters of the city and in its cemetery many personalities of the arts and culture are buried.

The painter
He studied at the School of Fine Arts (1909-1916)  winning seven first prizes during his attendance. In 1917 he went to Paris where he continued his studies at the Julian and Grande Chaumiere Academies but stopped in 1921 to take part in the Asia Minor Campaign as a war painter along with Periklis Vyzantios and Pavlos Rodokanakis. The works he painted there were exhibited at the Zappeion Hall in 1922, but were later lost in the destruction of Smyrna.
During 1923-1924 he stayed in Mt. Athos where he studied nature and Byzantine art and painted a series of works he exhibited at the end of 1924 in Thessaloniki. Having won the contest for the illustration of the Cathedral of Amfissa in 1926, he worked on the decoration from 1927 to 1932 while from 1932 to 1933 he painted an apartment building in the Exarcheia section of Athens, known ever since as the Blue Apartment House. His activity as a hagiographer and decorator continued with the illustration of other churches and the decoration of the Archaeological Museum of Herakleio; in 1926 his interest in set design commenced and he did sets for the performances at the National Theater, the Kotopouli Theater and elsewhere. He taught freehand and decorative drawing at the Handicrafts School, starting in 1925, decorative arts at the Sivitanideio Institute starting in 1936 while in 1940 he was appointed decorator of the Town-Planning Service of the Ministry for the Administration of the Capital and the Technical Service of the Municipality of Athens. At the same time he assumed the management of the Municipal Gallery. From 1943 to 1951 he taught freehand drawing at the Architectural School of the National Technical University and in 1956 was elected professor to the painting studio of the School of Fine Arts.
During the period 1935 to 1937 he published the avant garde Greek magazine Το Τρίτο Μάτι. A founding member of the Art Group and member of the League of Greek Artists, he took part in their exhibitions, in group shows in Greece and abroad as well as in Panhellenies.

In 1976 his work was presented in a retrospective exhibition at the National Gallery and in 1982 at the Cultural Center of the Municipality of Athens.
He was involved with portraiture and still life, but landscape is what dominated his painting which he rendered after having fully assimilated the doctrines of Byzantine art as well as certain post-impressionistic trends: Paul Gauguin, the Nabis and Pointillism in particular. In his portraits he adopted various techniques while in his iconography he endeavored to combine traditional Byzantine types with elements derived from modern artistic trends.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

PARNASSUS BY EDWARD DODWELL

 Edward_Dodwell (1767-1832) - 

Parnassus (2, 457m - 8,061ft)

Greece

In Mont Parnassus, colored plate, 1821, from the series 30 Views in Greece, BNF Gallica

The mountain 

Parnassus or Mount Parnassus (2, 457m - 8,061ft), in greek Parnassos (Παρνασσός) which means "the mountain of the house of the god", is a mountain of limestone in central Greece that towers above Delphi, north of the Gulf of Corinth.  According to Greek mythology, this mountain was sacred to Dionysus and the Dionysian mysteries; it was also sacred to Apollo and the Corycian nymphs, and it was the home of the Muses. The mountain was also favored by the Dorians.  Parnassus is one of the largest mountainous regions of Mainland Greece and one of the highest Greek mountains. It spreads over three municipalities, namely of Boeotia, Phthiotis and Phocis, where its largest part lies. Its highest peak is Liakouras. 

This relation of the mountain to the Muses offered an instigation to its more recent "mystification", with the poetic-artistic trend of the 19th century called "Parnassism". The Parnassic movement was established in France in the decade 1866–1876 as a reaction to Romanticism with a return to some classicistic elements and belief in the doctrine "Art for the Art", first expressed by the poet Theophile Gautier. The periodical Modern Parnassus issued for the first time by Catul Mendes and Xavier Ricard contained direct references to Mount.Parnassus and its mythological feature as habitation of the Muses. The Parnassists, who did not exceed a group of twenty poets, exercised a relatively strong influence on the cultural life of Paris, particularly due to their tenacity on perfection of rhyme and vocabulary. Parnassism influenced several French poets, such as Baudelaire, but it also exercised an influence on Modern Greek poets, particularly Kostis Palamas and Gryparis.
The name of the mountain, (Mont Parnasse in french ), was also given to a quarter of Paris on the left banc of the Seine, where artists and poets used to gather. Montparnasse is nowadays one of the most renowned quarters of the city and in its cemetery many personalities of the arts and culture are buried.

The painter 
Edward Dodwell  was an Irish painter, traveller and a writer on archaeology.  Dodwell travelled from 1801 to 1806 in Greece, which was then a part of the Ottoman Empire, and spent the rest of his life for the most part in Italy, at Naples, and Rome. He died in Rome from the effects of an illness contracted in 1830 during a visit of exploration to the Sabine Mountains. Dodwell's widow, a daughter of Count Giraud, thirty years his junior, subsequently became famous as the "beautiful countess of Spaur", and played a considerable role in the political life of the papal city.
Dodwell published A Classical and Topographical Tour through Greece (1819), of which a German translation appeared in 1821; Views in Greece, with thirty colored plates (1821); and Views and Descriptions of Cyclopian or Pelasgic Remains in Italy and Greece (London and Paris, with French text, 1834).

PARNASSUS PAINTED BY CARL ROTTMANN

CARL ROTTMANN (1797-1850),

Parnassus (2, 457m - 8,061ft)

Greece

In Sikyon mit Parnass, 1839, oil on canvas, Neue Pinakothek Munchen

The mountain 

Parnassus  or Mount Parnassus (2, 457m - 8,061ft), in greek Parnassos (Παρνασσός) which means "the mountain of the house of the god", is a mountain of limestone in central Greece that towers above Delphi, north of the Gulf of Corinth.  According to Greek mythology, this mountain was sacred to Dionysus and the Dionysian mysteries; it was also sacred to Apollo and the Corycian nymphs, and it was the home of the Muses. The mountain was also favored by the Dorians.  Parnassus is one of the largest mountainous regions of Mainland Greece and one of the highest Greek mountains. It spreads over three municipalities, namely of Boeotia, Phthiotis and Phocis, where its largest part lies. Its highest peak is Liakouras. 

This relation of the mountain to the Muses offered an instigation to its more recent "mystification", with the poetic-artistic trend of the 19th century called "Parnassism". The Parnassic movement was established in France in the decade 1866–1876 as a reaction to Romanticism with a return to some classicistic elements and belief in the doctrine "Art for the Art", first expressed by the poet Theophile Gautier. The periodical Modern Parnassus issued for the first time by Catul Mendes and Xavier Ricard contained direct references to Mount.Parnassus and its mythological feature as habitation of the Muses. The Parnassists, who did not exceed a group of twenty poets, exercised a relatively strong influence on the cultural life of Paris, particularly due to their tenacity on perfection of rhyme and vocabulary. Parnassism influenced several French poets, such as Baudelaire, but it also exercised an influence on Modern Greek poets, particularly Kostis Palamas and Gryparis.
The name of the mountain, (Mont Parnasse in french ), was also given to a quarter of Paris on the left banc of the Seine, where artists and poets used to gather. Montparnasse is nowadays one of the most renowned quarters of the city and in its cemetery many personalities of the arts and culture are buried.

The painter 
Carl Anton Joseph Rottmann was a German landscape painter and the most famous member of the Rottmann family of painters. Rottmann belonged to the circle of artists around the Ludwig I of Bavaria, who commissioned large landscape paintings exclusively from him. He is best known for mythical and heroising landscapes. The landscape painter Karl Lindemann-Frommel belonged to his school. Rottmann  received his first drawing lessons from his father, Friedrich Rottmann, who taught drawing at the university in Heidelberg. He formed himself chiefly through the study of nature and of great masterworks. In his first artistic period, he painted atmospheric phenomena. After gaining prominence with Heidelberg at Sunset (a water color), and Castle Eltz, he settled in Munich in 1822 and devoted himself to Bavarian scenery. Here his second period began, and in 1824 he married Friedericke, the daughter of his uncle, Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell, who served as an attendant at court. Through this connection, he made the acquaintance of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, who in 1826/27 sponsored his travels in Italy in order to widen his repertoire, which up to that point consisted solely of domestic, German, landscapes. In Italy, Rottmann made sketches for the 28 Italian landscapes in fresco which he was commissioned to paint in the arcades of the Hofgarten at Munich. The cycle, completed in 1833, gave visual expression to Ludwig’s alliance with Italy, and raised the genre of landscape painting to the height of history painting, the preferred mode of the King’s other great commissions for monumental painting. The frescos unfortunately deteriorated under climatic influences. The cartoons for them are in the Darmstadt Gallery.
In 1834 Rottmann traveled to Greece to prepare for a commission from Ludwig for a second cycle; one might mark here the beginning of his third period. At first also intended for the Hofgarten arcade, the 23 great landscapes were eventually installed in the newly built Neue Pinakothek where they were given their own hall.