What fascinates me most is how speech, written or oral, literary or folk can become an occasion for the creation of an artwork.
With egg tempera, inks, gold and silver leaves, paint brushes and dip pens, and with predominant tool the so-called “minuscule cursive” script, the Greek handwriting of the Byzantine times, I attempt to capture on the parchment the rhythm of the words, the color of the speech.
The source of inspiration for this particular scarf is the poem “The Greek Language”by the great Laconian poet Nikiforos Vrettakos, whose poetic speech moves me deeply and floods me with images, forms and shapes.
Leonidas Michalakos
The Greek Language
Silk scarf “The Greek Language”
Design commissioned by MANTILITY
Sizes: 70x200cm
Theme: Poetry, Painting, Greek Minuscule, Byzantine Manuscripts
Description: 100% Silk – Hand illustrated
Designer: Leonidas Michalakos
Country: Greece
Year: 2020
Care: Dry clean only – Cool iron the back side only
Limited to: 200 pcs
Leonidas Michalakos
Leonidas Michalakos was born in 1959 in Kotronas of Mani, Greece where he grew up. He graduated from the Panormos Preparatory and Vocational School of Fine Arts in Tinos with the well-known painter and sculptor Yiannis Maniatakos as his teacher.
