Institute for Mediterranean Studies

Centre of Art History "El Greco"

The "El Greco Center" of the Institute for Mediterranean Studies is the only center for scientific research in art history operating in Greece.

The Center was originally established in 1990, at the initiative of the Professor – now Emeritus Professor – of the University of Crete, Nicos Hadjinicolaou, aiming at the scientific study of El Greco's work. However, from the outset it has hosted other art history research projects as well.

The Center’s wider objectives are the research in the history of modern Western art from the late Μiddle Ages to the 20th century, the calling of scientific congresses and conferences, the organization of lectures and seminars, the publication of specialized studies, the establishment of a specialized library and photo gallery, and the organization of relevant exhibitions.

The research projects that take place in “El Greco Center” concern mainly the relations of the artistic production in the Greek area with that of the Mediterranean and the wider European area and are carried out in cooperation with various educational and cultural institutions in Crete and in Greece (The Benaki Museum, The French Archaeological School, etc.), as well as abroad.

People

Yuliana Boycheva

Yuliana Boycheva

Assistant Researcher, RICONTRANS Project Director
Curriculum vitae
Panayotis K. Ioannou

Panayotis K. Ioannou

Associate Professor in Art History
Department of History and Archaeology, University of Crete
Curriculum vitae
Eugenios D. Matthiopoulos

Eugenios D. Matthiopoulos

Professor - History of Art
Department of History and Archaeology, University of Crete
Curriculum vitae
Sofia Katopi

Sofia Katopi

Postdoctoral researcher
Curriculum vitae
Spyros Moschonas

Spyros Moschonas

Postdoctoral researcher
Curriculum vitae
Dr. Daria Resh

Dr. Daria Resh

Postdoctoral researcher
Curriculum vitae
Katerina Seraïdari

Katerina Seraïdari

Postdoctoral researcher
Curriculum vitae
Poppy Sfakianaki

Poppy Sfakianaki

Postdoctoral researcher
Princeton University
Lefteris Spyrou

Lefteris Spyrou

Postdoctoral researcher
Curriculum vitae
Maria Vakondiou

Maria Vakondiou

Postdoctoral researcher
Curriculum vitae
Marianna Karali

Marianna Karali

Ph.D. candidate
Department of History and Archaeology, University of Crete
Aspasia Chalkiadaki

Aspasia Chalkiadaki

Postgraduate student
University of Crete
Curriculum vitae
Maria Ernest Fragopoulou

Maria Ernest Fragopoulou

Research Assistant - Projects Coordination & Management
Elisavet Margeti

Elisavet Margeti

Postgraduate student
Panteion University
Curriculum vitae
Katerina Stathi

Katerina Stathi

Project Coordinator - Communication Assistant
Curriculum vitae
Eirini Touloupi

Eirini Touloupi

Postgraduate student
University of Crete
Curriculum vitae
Olga Gratziou

Olga Gratziou

IMS Honorary Fellow, Professor Emerita
Department of History and Archaeology, University of Crete
Curriculum vitae
Nicos Hadjinicolaou

Nicos Hadjinicolaou

IMS Honorary Fellow
Department of History and Archaeology, University of Crete

Research Projects

PanArtExh

The Institution of Panhellenic Art Exhibitions, 1938-1987

The proposed research project aims at the systematic documentation and critical analysis of the fifteenth Panhellenic Art Exhibitions, which were organised between 1938 and 1987 and were the most important periodical large-scale art exhibition in 20th century Greece. This study based on extensive research in state and private archives, state and private art collections, as well as in the daily and periodical press, shall provide us with essential information about the artistic production of each era (e.g. the dominant artistic trends), the means of State intervention in the arts and the trends within the art market. Finally, it will look at the art criticisms, which formed the dominant aesthetic canon, by promoting certain artistic criteria and consequently influencing the reception of the artworks by the public and the direction of the artistic production in Greece.

RICONTRANS

RICONTRANS: Visual Culture, Piety and Propaganda: Transfer and Reception of Russian Religious Art in the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean (16th - early 20th c.)

ERC

The Russian religious artifacts (icons and ecclesiastical furnishings), held in museums, church or monastery collections in the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean, constitute a body of valuable monuments hitherto largely neglected by historians and historians of art. These objects acquire various interrelated religious, ideological, political and aesthetic meanings, value, and uses. Their transfer and reception constitutes a significant component of the wider process of transformation of the artistic language and visual culture in the region and its transition from medieval to modern idioms. It is at the same time a process reflecting the changing cultural and political relations between Russia and the Orthodox communities in the Ottoman Empire and its successor states in the Balkans over a long period of time (16th- early 20th century). In this dynamic transfer, piety, propaganda and visual culture appear intertwined in historically unexplored and theoretically provoking ways. Applying the cultural transfer approach in combination with the recent challenging openings of art history to visual studies and social anthropology, RICONTRANS aims: to map the phenomenon in its long history by identifying preserved objects in the region; to follow the paths and identify the mediums of this transfer; to analyze the moving factors of this process; to study and classify these objects according to their iconographic and artistic particularities; to inquire into the aesthetic, ideological, political and social factors which shaped the context of the reception of Russian religious art objects in various social and cultural environments; to investigate the influence of these transferred artifacts on the visual culture of the host societies.

METOPO (WP9)

From the landscape of the romantics to the artof the land. Representations of the Greek landscape in the arts from the 18th until the late 20th century (painting, engraving, photography)

Scientific responsible: Evgenios D. Matthiopoulos

The project aims at the systematic recording and study of the pictorial production (paintings, prints and photographs) of the Greek natural landscape from the 18th to the 20th century.

METOPO (WP6)

Greek artists’ Italian perspective, 18th-19th centuries

Scientific coordinator: Panayotis K. Ioannou

This research programme is a continuation of the programme “Greek artists in the West (15th-18th century)”. It examines the pursuits of Greek artists who settled in various cities of the Italian peninsula and became engaged in its artistic developments, but did not cut their ties with Greece.

Western Art in Crete

Western Art in Crete

The aim of the program is to study the art of Crete in the Venetian period (13th–17th c.).

Art criticism in Greece

Art criticism in Greece

The research program aims to gather extensively into a database the writings of the most important Greek art critics of the 20th century. It intends to create an archive which will provide researchers, through a multiple and flexible search system, not only with a bibliographical record of the material, but also with the actual texts of art criticism (in form of digitized reproduction) so as to offer the possibility of their direct reading.