Portrait of Konstantinos Kavafis

Mediums: tempera, wood.
Location: The Museum of Byzantine Art, Athens (Greece).

In one of his lectures, Professor N. Engonopoulos proclaimed, “Byzantine art is the closest form of Greek art.” There were two main “Byzantine periods” in his creative biography when he painted portraits of saints and scholars, created paintings of religious content, using ancient technology. The picture of the great Greek poet of the early 20th century was painted in compliance with all the canons, but using modern symbols. Famous, though after his death in 1933, Kavafis, the greatest poet of the modern Greek language, looks both a saint and a dandy in the stylized portrait.