Vital Expression (English language edition)

Ιoannis Makriyannis (1797-1864) was a Greek politician and author, best known today for his Memoirs. Starting from humble origins, he joined the Greek struggle for independence, achieving the rank of general and leading his men to notable victories. Following Greek independence, he had a tumultuous public career, playing a prominent part in the granting of the first Constitution of the Kingdom of Greece and later being sentenced to death and pardoned.

Despite his important contributions to the political life of the early Greek state, general Makriyannis is mostly remembered for his Memoirs. Aside from being a source of historical and cultural information about the period, it led Nobel laureate Giorgos Seferis to call Makriyannis ‘one of the greatest masters of Modern Greek prose’.

Τhese aquarelles, a series of 24 paintings, vividly depict episodes from the Greek War of Independence of 1821 and from the Memoirs. Painted by Panayiotis and Dimitrios Zografou from Sparta, the series belonged to King Otto of Greece, the first monarch of ‘modern’ Greece. They were bought by Joannes Gennadius (1844–1932) in Rome in 1909.

This volume from Kapon Editions, in association with the Gennadius Library, includes historical documents along with texts that look at Makriyannis - the ‘hero of the Greek War of Independence’ – as well as Joannes Gennadius (1844-1932) the Greek diplomat, book collector, writer and benefactor, founder of the Gennadius Library now housed in The American School of Classical Studies at Athens.