Yannoulis Chalepas ( el, Γιαννούλης Χαλεπάς, August 14, 1851 – September 15, 1938) was a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

and a significant figure of

Modern Greek art Modern Greek art is art from the period between the emergence of the new independent Greek state and the 20th century. As Mainland Greece was under Ottoman rule for all four centuries, it was not a part of the Renaissance and artistic movements th ...

Life

Chalepas was born in Pyrgos, on the island of

Tinos Tinos ( el, Τήνος ) is a Greek island situated in the Aegean Sea. It is located in the Cyclades archipelago. The closest islands are Andros, Delos, and Mykonos. It has a land area of and a 2011 census population of 8,636 inhabitants. Tinos ...

in 1851, from a family of marble hewers. From 1869 to 1872, he studied at the School of Arts in Athens, under Neoclassical sculptor Leonidas Drossis. In 1873, he left for

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...

, under a scholarship of the Panhellenic Holy Foundation of the Evangelistria of Tinos, to continue his studies at the

Munich Academy of Fine Arts The Academy of Fine Arts, Munich (german: Akademie der Bildenden Künste München, also known as Munich Academy) is one of the oldest and most significant art academies in Germany. It is located in the Maxvorstadt district of Munich, in Bavaria ...

under the Neoclassical sculptor

Max von Widnmann Max von Widnmann (German nobility, ennobled as Maximilian Ritter von Widnmann; 16 October 1812 – 3 March 1895)Th-B, "Widnmann, Max von, sculptor", ''Dictionary of German Biography'', ed. Walther Killy and Rudolf Vierhaus, with Dietrich von Eng ...

. His scholarship was intercepted to be given to another student. He returned to Athens in 1876, opened a workshop and began working individually.

Mental illness

In 1878, Chalepas suffered a

nervous breakdown A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitt ...

. He began destroying some of his sculptures and made several

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and ...

attempts. His condition worsened and from July 11, 1888 to June 6, 1902, he was committed to the Mental Hospital of

Corfu Corfu (, ) or Kerkyra ( el, Κέρκυρα, Kérkyra, , ; ; la, Corcyra.) is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea, of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the margin of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The isl ...

. In 1901 his father died and the next year his mother went to Corfu and took Chalepas to Tinos. After his return, Chalepas lived under his mother's strict supervision, who blamed sculpture for her son's illness and prevented him from sculpting, destroying everything he created.

Rehabilitation

His mother died in 1916 and Chalepas began to work again with insufficient means, after a long time of inactivity. He gained attention and made contacts with intellectual circles in Athens. Also, many eminent personalities of the arts, such as Thomas Thomopoulos, member of the Academy of Athens, and

Zacharias Papantoniou Zacharias Papantoniou ( el, Ζαχαρίας Παπαντωνίου, ''Zacharias Papandoniou'') was a Greek writer. He was born in Karpenissi of Evrytania in February 1877 and died in Athens in 1940. He spent the first years of his life in Gran ...

, director of the

National Gallery of Athens The National Gallery ( el, Εθνική Πινακοθήκη, ''Ethniki Pinakothiki'') is an art museum located on Vasilissis Sofias avenue in the Pangrati district, Athens, Greece. It is devoted to Greek and European art from the 14th century ...

, visited him in Tinos. In 1925, an exhibition of Chalepas' works was organized by the Academy of Athens, and in 1927 he received the Academy's “Award for Excellence in Arts and Letters”. In 1930 he moved to Athens and continued working until his death on September 15, 1938.

Art

The creative production of Chalepas is shared between two periods, the first, from the early years to the start of his mental illness, and the second, called the "post-sanity" period (1918–1938) which is divided into two phases. The first corresponds to the years of rehabilitation in Tinos, from 1918 to 1930, and the second spans the last years of his life, from 1930 to his death in 1938. Chalepas's early work shows the rare maturity of the artist from the very beginning.

Gallery

File:Atenas, Primer Cementerio 03.jpg, Tomb of Sofia Afentaki File:DSC-0033-First-Cemetery-of-Athens-august-2017.jpg, Tomb of Sofia Afentaki File:Macedonian Museums-13-Sygxronhs Texnhs Florinas-63.jpg, Head File:Panormos, Tinos, Greece 2018040916460N01226.jpg, Yannoulis House Museum File:Yannoulis Halepas sketch.png, Sketch of sculptor File:Yannoulis-chalepas-medea.jpg, Sketch of sculptor

References

External links

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Chalepas Yannoulis and photos
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National Gallery
04/10/2018. Retrieved 04/10/2018. {{DEFAULTSORT:Chalepas, Yannoulis 1851 births 1938 deaths Greek sculptors People from Tinos Sculptors who committed suicide Academy of Fine Arts, Munich alumni Burials at the First Cemetery of Athens 20th-century Greek sculptors 19th-century sculptors 1938 suicides 19th-century Greek sculptors Suicides in Greece