The Poet and the Saint: The Trek of Nicolas Calas to Mount Athos and his Meeting with Saint Daniel of Katounakia

Nicolas Calas (1907-88) was a Greek-American surrealist poet, art critic, cultural historian, and lifelong Trotskyist, who blended Marxism and psychoanalysis along with the ideas of Wilhelm Reich, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Ludwig Wittgenstein.

Calas's birth name was Nikos Kalamaris although he would publish essays as "Manolis Spieros" from 1929 to 1934 and poetry as "Nikitos Randos" from 1930 to 1936. An only child, born in Lausanne, Switzerland but raised in Athens, he was educated at home by his aristocratic family, who placed an emphasis on languages inasmuch as they hoped that he would become a diplomat.

Byzantium and the Art of Modernity

A Historic Timeline of Art Movements (5th cent. - 20th cent.)

Pre-Renaissance

Gothic: 5th Century to 16th Century A.D.

Gothic Art is the style of art produced in Northern Europe from the middle ages up until the beginning of the Renaissance. Typically rooted in religious devotion, it is especially known for the distinctive arched design of its churches, its stained glass, and its illuminated manuscripts. In the late 14th century, anticipating the Renaissance, Gothic Art developed into a more secular style known as International Gothic. One of the great artists of this period is Simone Martini. Although superseded by Renaissance art, there was a Gothic Revival in the 18th and 19th centuries, largely rooted in nostalgia and romanticism.

Book: "Warhol/Icon: The Creation of Image"

Warhol/Icon was a major exhibition co-created by Haunch of Venison and Potnia Thiron Gallery in Athens, which explored Andy Warhol's obsession with fame through his work as a painter of ‘icons’. The emphasis in the exhibition was on the relationship between Warhol’s own Byzantine religious beliefs, Slavic background and devotion to his mystical mother, and his apparently unfettered celebration of an American celebrity culture.

Saint Paisios in the Youth Culture of Greece (photos + video)

On a wall on the island of Samos, there has been designed an unusual graffiti image, depicting the figure of the Holy Elder Paisios, whose memory is celebrated on July 12th.

Although this artistic trend is to some extent linked with rap and hip hop music, we should remember the song by the Greek rapper Artemis titled "Max (Passions and Virtues)" from his album Wolves in Sheep's Clothing (Λυκόσχημος Αμνός), which speaks of the true story of the conversion of a young junkie named Max to Christianity after reading the book Counsels of Saint Paisios: Passions and Virtues in prison.

The Conversion of French Photographer Frère Jean (Gérard Gascuel) to Orthodoxy

March 22, 2011
Interfax

Photographer Gérard Gascuel who worked with Marcel Marceau and Salvador Dali and now is Hieromonk Gerasimos says he decided to become a monk after hearing an Athonite monk singing.

"I was 33 when the editor in chief of an influential Japanese magazine sent me to Greece to make a report about the life of Athonite monks," Father Gerasimos was quoted as saying by the Rossijskaya Gazeta daily on Tuesday.

Great Art is Transcendent

By Jeff Goins

The people who built the Statue of Liberty gave the world a gift. Everyone who comes to New York benefits from it. As do those who see the memorable icon in a movie or on a key chain.

There are few symbols in the world as powerful as that green lady. When people look at her, they don’t see oxidized copper and a museum.

They see freedom.

They see beginning.

They see new life.

Great art is powerful

It goes beyond the mere physical realm; it supersedes the moment.

The Relentless Cult of Novelty

The following address was delivered when Solzhenitsyn was awarded the National Arts Club Medal of Honor for Literature in 1993. It was translated by Solzhenitsyn's sons, Ignat and Stephan. The title was provided by The New York Times, where the essay was first printed.

By Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Nothing worthy can be built on a neglect of higher meanings and on a relativistic view of concepts and culture as a whole.

There is a long accepted truth about art that "style is the man" ("le style est l'homme”). This means that every work of a skilled Musician, Artist or Writer is shaped by an absolutely unique combination of personality traits, creative abilities and individual as well as national experience. And since such a combination can never be recreated, art (but I shall here speak primarily of literature) possesses infinite variety across the ages and among different peoples.

Unknown Work Attributed to El Greco Discovered in Italy

An enthroned Saint Demetrios, a work of the Cretan School, may be the work of El Greco in his Cretan period.

Dimitri Deliolanis

July 30, 2015

New Post

An unknown painting of Domenikos Theotokopoulos was discovered in Italy and will be exhibited for the first time in October. It depicts Saint Demetrios enthroned, of exceptional beauty, which undoubtedly belongs to the Cretan period of El Greco. This is the least known period of activity of the great artist, and we have only two other icons of his from this time. As explained to us by the Italian conservator Mariella Lobefaro, who made the discovery: "Surely it is a work that is from the period before 1567 and therefore extremely rare: it is the only one that reached us in such good condition."

Art Is Often Misinterpreted

What do you think this depicts?

The painting above at first sight seems to depict a horrific image, but in reality it shows that art is often not to be interpreted literally. One needs to think outside the box and put art in its context.

So what does it depict?

Saint Nektary of Optina and the Arts

Saint Nektary of Optina (Feast Day - April 29)

In 1876, Nicholas [later named Nektary] arrived at the Optina forest with a bundle swung over his shoulder, containing nothing but a copy of the New Testament. Many years later, the holy father recalled his first impressions of Optina Monastery: "Lord! How beautiful it is with the sun flooding the area from sunrise, and the flowers! Just as though in Paradise!" Nicholas was received by none other than Elder Ambrose, and his initial dialogue with this great sagacious elder produced such a deep impression that he remained there for the rest of his life. Elders Ambrose and Anthony (Zertsalov) became his spiritual mentors.

When he was in reclusion, Elder Nektary’s spiritual preceptors blessed him, after ten years of exclusive study of spiritual literature, to read secular authors and to study the secular sciences, obviously with the aim that he acquire that knowledge which would enable him to help lead the restless souls of the groping intelligentsia to salvation. He studied science, mathematics, history, geography and classical literature, both Russian and foreign. He spoke to his visitors about Pushkin and Shakespeare, Milton and Krilov, Spengler and Hegart, Blok, Dante, Gogol, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. In his only hour of rest after dinner he would ask to have read aloud Pushkin or some fairy tales—either Russian or the Brothers Grimm.

Christ the Artist

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

An artist is one who, from crude and shapeless stone, carves and shapes forms similar to living creatures. An artist is one who weaves a multi-colored blanket from the wool of sheep. An artist is one who builds a magnificent palace out of earthly bricks. But what kind of artist on earth can be compared to Christ the Artist, who from illiterate men creates wise men, who from fishermen creates apostles, who from cowards creates heroes, who from the immoral creates saints?

Doménikos Theotokópoulos Before El Greco

El Greco will always be Domenicos Theotokopoulos for Greece and there are five exhibitions in Athens alone to prove that.

December 5, 2014

Neos Kosmos

As a tribute to the 400th anniversary of the death of the Spanish Renaissance artist, several art exhibitions are being held in Museums around the world, five of which in the city of Athens alone.

"Lemon in Silence" (an Art Piece by Hieromonk Symeon de la Jara)

Lemon in Silence (Hieromonk Symeon, 1992)

Read also: Father Symeon de la Jara: On a Righteous Path from Peru to Mount Athos

"Transgression" In Rock and Roll According to Marilyn Manson

In 2012 The Stool Pigeon conducted an interesting interview with Marilyn Manson on transgression in rock music. Below are some of the least offensive excerpts, but still there are parts below that may be found offensive and it does contain a few swear words (Warning!). Too often Christians evaluate rock music based on their own worldview without listening to what rock musicians actually have to say about what they do, and this creates a never ending cycle of reactionism. This is not only a rock star's evaluation, perhaps the last rock star at that, of "transgression" in Rock and Roll, but also a way subversive musical artists tend to view society and why they create the art they do. Some things you may agree with, some things not, but it is still interesting nonetheless, especially in a time when rock music is speedily declining, though not its influence.

The Stool Pigeon: I want to ask you about the role of transgression in rock music, where transgression is going, and even if the outrageous, controversial rock star of the late 20th Century might be redundant.

Marilyn Manson: I think by its nature it’s redundant. You can’t really ever make any art without getting someone’s attention… constantly. You have to say something differently, constantly. Dali said that anyone who doesn’t steal isn’t an artist and you have to take things and make them your own, and then when you’ve done that, you have to realise how not to cannibalise yourself, but how to transform constantly. This record I’ve just made allows people to witness that I’ve made a transformation. All music comes from heartache and all music comes from pain and suffering. That’s never going to go away, so it’s how do we learn to adapt to the fact that the whole world is able to talk really loud now? You know, everyone’s a journalist now – everyone’s got an opinion – and I think that just levels the playing field. Andy Warhol told us that everyone would be famous for 15 minutes and he was very accurate. So we have to invent new ways to make it interesting to other people because we’re trying to appeal to other people. You have to make this conversation interesting to someone else who wants to read it.

...

Byzantine Frescoes of Ancient Philosophers

During the Ottoman occupation (15th-19th cent.) many churches and monasteries throughout Greece served as "secret schools" (Gr. "κρυφό σχολειό") where the writings of the ancients were studied in a private environment and taught by either monastics or clergy. Often these schools were in the narthex of churches, which is why these frescoes are often found in this area of the church. Because many ancient philosophers are said to have foretold the coming of Christ as well, they were revered by Christians for their wisdom, though not as saints (hence their depiction without halos).

The Iconography of Musical Instruments on Mount Athos

By Maria Voutsa

In Post-Byzantine iconographic representations on Mount Athos we encounter the artistic representation of musical instruments. Examples include the representations in the Sacred Monastery of Koutloumousiou, and we will mention others in our future posts. This shows a percussion instrument, probably of Persian origin. The nakers appear in Byzantine iconography from the 12th century onwards, a pair of kettle-like percussion drums of the same size hemispherically, with the open side covered by a membrane attached usually with ropes. They are struck with two thin keys that are called "xyliphia" (wooden sticks).

Saint Ardalion the Mime, a Prototype of a Genuine Artist

Holy Martyr Ardalion the Mime (Feast Day - April 14)

By Protopresbyter Fr. George Papavarnavas

Saint Ardalion lived at the end of the third century and practiced the profession of mime, or actor. He was truly a great "talent", which is why his presence in the theater caused crowding. On an official day, when the theater was packed and the Provincial Ruler was present, as well as other State officials, Ardalion "staged" his own show, making reference to Christians by highlighting their explicit courage with which they expressed their faith before the powers of the State, the patience they had during horrific torture, as well as the love they showed even to their executioners. He himself played a Christian, who was tortured hard, and even though he suffered, he remained calm and peaceful. Therefore, he was hung high and showed that he was being tormented and suffering, after allegedly they had torn his flesh and he bled like a river. His depiction was so vivid and amazing, that viewers below began to fervently clap for the skill of the artist, who managed to inspire viewers sympathy and admiration for Christians.

Man's Creative Power and the Knowledge of God

By Elder Sophrony of Essex

Many-sided is the image of God in man. Man's creative power is one aspect, manifesting itself in various spheres and branches of culture - civilization, art, science, and so forth. This creative power does not rest here but continues to transcend the visible and temporal in its striving to attain to the origin of all that exists - God the Creator.

El Greco: A Defender of Byzantine Art

18 December 2008
Alpha Galileo

A new investigation could end many of the speculations about the works of El Greco and the man himself. A hand-written annotation to a book, similar to the glosses of Saint Emilianus, found in Spain in a copy of Lives of the most excellent architects, painters and sculptors by Giorgio Vasari, has led Nicos Hadjinicolau, a researcher from the Institute of Mediterranean Studies, to conclude that the artist – contrary to popular belief – was a defender of Byzantine art.