Aristeidis Metallinos (; (c. 1908 – 19 May 1987) was a

Greek Greek may refer to: 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 of all kno ...

sculptor. There is no official record of Metallinos' birth date; he was one of three sons of Zacharias and Eleni Metallinos. Except for one carving in stone of a woman's shoe when he was 20, Metallinos spent the greatest part of his life working as a shoemaker, stonemason, builder and general craftsman in the village of Ano Korakiana on the island of

Corfu Corfu ( , ) or Kerkyra (, ) is a Greece, Greek island in the Ionian Sea, of the Ionian Islands; including its Greek islands, small satellite islands, it forms the margin of Greece's northwestern frontier. The island is part of the Corfu (regio ...

in Greece. Despite early evidence of his imaginative talent as a carver of stone, Metallinos was prevented by poverty from artistic training. He did not begin his work as a self-taught sculptor until 1973, when at the age of 67 until his death in 1987, he fulfilled a long-held intention of using hammer and chisel 'to bear witness to human nature and its weaknesses' . The

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Metallinos carved on a stone plaque fixed to the front of his house, displaying his initials, and holding a builder's trowel and a sculptor's hammer, is dated the year he made the transition from builder to sculptor, depicting in stone and marble a unique record of a fast changing pastoral economy, emphasising the primacy of the family, village institutions and traditional customs, yet mingling with this account of Greek folklore, works that are erotic, ribald and subversively political. His work of over 250 pieces, nearly all completed in the last 12 years of his life, is kept together in a family museum in Ano Korakiana - a museum he built himself, intending it as a gift to the village. Metallinos' first wife, Eleni, died childless. He was married again, late in life, to Angeliki, who bore him two children, Andreas and Maria. He died at the age of 79 on 19 May 1987. Andreas died in October 2016. His wife Anna continues to live in Ano Korakiana in the museumΤο Μουσείου, The Μuseum - closed to the public - on ''Democracy Street'' in Ano Korakiana
/ref> that houses a unique collection of work largely unknown outside the village in which it was created. File:ΕΟΚ.jpg, ΕΟΚ (Ευρωπαϊκή Οικονομική Κοινότητα) 1980. The EEC as a broody

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File:Pressing the farmer's olive oil.JPG, ''Village olive-oil press'', 1982

References

* Giannis M. Maris (1978) "Βιογραφικό - Αριστείδης Ζαχ. Μεταλληνός", in ''Απάνθισμα Γραμμάτων και Τεχνών'', Athens, pp. 611–617
Ευρυδίκη Αντζουλάτου-Ρετσίλα
(1985) "Θέματα Κερκυραϊκής λαoγραφίας στo έργo τoυ λαϊκoύ λιθoγλύπτη Αριστείδη Μεταλληνoύ" στο ''Μυριόβιβλoς'', τεύχ. 7, Αθήνα, σελ. 37-47 * Eurydice Antzοulatοu-Retsila (2005) "Θέματα Κέρκυραϊκής λαογραφίας στο έργο του λαϊκού λιθογλύπτη Αριστείδη Μεταλληνού", in ''Πολιτιστικά και Μουσειολογικά Σύμμεικτα'', Papazisis Editions, Athens, pp. 47–70

External links

showing further images of the sculptor's work
'Λαϊκή παράδοση' June 19, 2014
{{DEFAULTSORT:Metallinos, Aristeidis 1900s births 1987 deaths Artists from Corfu Folk artists Stonemasons Naïve art 20th-century Greek sculptors