“…when the sweet voice rang out…”

My work for the group painting exhibition “…when the sweet voice rang out…”

For my part, it is a tribute to the unknown, selfless fighters of 1821, and also to all the unsung, everyday people who toil with integrity for their ideals without ever seeking titles or publicity.

I depict the duality of Chatzigiannis’s character: in one hand his deadly yataghan – the fighting side of his personality, the “mountain”, that is – and in the other an ear of wheat – the “cherry trees”, the tenderness of the farmer toiling over the fruits of the earth.

Chatzigiannis sacrificed his family’s peace and the property he had worked so hard to acquire to the struggle for his country’s freedom, without ever asking for anything. He fought in countless battles, true to his ideals until the Struggle had triumphed and the Greek state had been founded. Seeing his struggles vindicated, he withdrew, penniless, to his home village of Sofiko, in the hope that his country would reward him. But in vain, for the state was in no position to provide for him. He spent the rest of his life at Examilia in Corinthia, farming his land, and died there around 1860.