Continental School, 19th century

Reminiscent of the works of Theodoros Vryzakis, Peter von Hess, Francesco Hayez and Alexandre-Marie Colin the pathos of the present work, where two women come to the help of a wounded freedom fighter, is representative of Greek and Continental depictions of the War of Independence. These paintings typically tended to fuse the visual language of history painting with emotive, sometimes sentimental genre subjects that addressed these war scenes on both a human and an emotional level. Such images, which enjoyed great public acclaim at the time and were widely circulated by means of engravings, provided the bedrock upon which Greek artists would henceforth seek out modern pictorial identities for their country.

Nineteenth century philhellenic painting was a fusion of ideas and themes, combining eternal associations of Greece with a traditional European fear of Ottoman barbarism, and relishing in the potential for the portrayal of military action which combined reportage and commitment, poetry and allegory.

In the present work the use of light and shadow dramatically highlights the trinity formed by the wounded freedom fighter and the two women looking after him. Surrounded by fighting soldiers, the stillness of this group is put in direct opposition to the frantic speed of the war action circling around that threatens to engulf them. To the left one can perceive smoke rising from the guns that cuts through the darkening sky - the impending fall of night itself a symbol of the life-force slowly departing the body of the wounded man. By putting the focus of the attention on the human element, the present work depicts not only a battle scene from the War of Independence, but tells the tale of the heroism and the personal sacrifices made by those who fought to liberate their country.