Photis Kontoglou (Greek:Φώτης Κόντογλου, the pen name of Φώτης Αποστολέλης (Photis Apostolelis);Aivali, 8 November 1895 –Athens, 13 July 1965) was a Greek writer, painter andicon painter.
He was raised by his mother, Despoina Kontoglou, and his uncle Stefanos Kontoglou, who was abbot in the nearby monastery of Aghia Paraskevi. He spent his childhood among the monastery, the sea and the fishermen. In 1913, he enrolled at theAthens School of Fine Arts. In 1923, he stayed for some time at the monasteries ofMount Athos, where he discovered the technique ofByzantine iconography. Two years later, he married Maria Hatzikambouri, who was also from Aivali/Kydoniai (modern dayAyvalık, Turkey) and moved to Greece in 1922.[1]
In 1923 he made his first painting exposition inMytilene, withKonstantinos Maleas.
In 1933, he was invited by the Egyptian government to work for theCoptic Museum. However, he decided to stay in Athens and he delivered classes of painting at theNational and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Among his students were some of the most important modern Greek painters.
Kontoglou was for a time a resident in Paris, where he received a prize for the illustrations he made forKnut Hamsun's bookFamine. However, it was his illustrations for his own book,Pedro Kazas, that made him famous.
Kontoglou was a particularly productive artist. A devoutOrthodox Christian, he undertook the restoration of the frescos of the Perivleptos church inMystras which, along with the Cretan icon painters in the years after the fall of Constantinople (1453), he considered to be the very best of the Iconographers' work and a model for his own work.[2] Furthermore, he painted frescos in various churches all around Greece; among them theKapnikarea church in Athens. He also painted the monumental fresco of theEcumenical Patriarchs of Constantinople at the town hall of Athens and frescoes for Zoodochos Peghi at Liopesi (Paiania), the Church of Saint Andrew off Patission Street in Athens, the Metropolitan Church of Evangelismos in Rhodes and the Church of Saint George at Stemnitsa in Arcadia. Churches in Athens frescoes by Kontoglou include Saint George at Kypseli, Saint Haralambos in the park Pedion tou Areos and Saint Nicholas at Kato Patissia.[3] Kontoglou was also the original iconographer of the main iconography at theGreek Orthodox Church of the Holy Trinity inCharleston, South Carolina.[4][5]
The iconography on the dome and other areas of theArchdiocesan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in New York City was created by Georgios Gliatas, a student of Kontoglou.[6] Other notable students includeRallis Kopsides.[7]
Kontoglou also wrote various works of literature as well as numerous essays, winning theAcademy of Athens Prize for his bookEkphrasis published in 1961, championing orthodoxy but also criticising moves by the thenPatriarch Athenagoras towardsecumenism, which he believed would compromise Orthodox values.[8]
Kontoglou died in 1965.
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