Yannoulis Chalepas was a Greek sculptor and significant figure of Modern Greek art.

Life

Chalepas was born in Pyrgos, on the island of Tinos

Tinos

Tinos is a Greek island situated in the Aegean Sea. It is located in the Cyclades archipelago. In antiquity, Tinos was also known as Ophiussa and Hydroessa . The closest islands are Andros, Delos, and Mykonos...

 in 1851, from a family of marble hewers. From 1869 to 1872, he studied at the School of Arts

Athens School of Fine Arts

The Athens School of Fine Arts , is Greece's premier art school whose main objective is to develop the artistic talents of its students.-History:Athens School of Fine Arts was established on 12 January 1837, known as the School for the Arts...

 in Athens, under Neoclassical sculptor Leonidas Drossis. In 1873, he left for Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

, under a scholarship of the Panhellenic Holy Foundation of the Evangelistria of Tinos

Our Lady of Tinos

Our Lady of Tinos is the major Marian shrine in Greece. It is located in the town of Tinos on the island of Tinos.The complex is built around a miraculous icon which according to tradition was found after the Virgin appeared to the nun St. Pelagia and revealed to her the place where the icon was...

, to continue his studies at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts under the Neoclassical sculptor Max Ritter von Widnmann. His scholarship was intercepted to be given to another student. He returned to Athens in 1876, opened a workshop and began working individually.

Mental illness

In 1878, Chalepas suffered a nervous breakdown

Mental breakdown

Mental breakdown is a non-medical term used to describe an acute, time-limited phase of a specific disorder that presents primarily with features of depression or anxiety.-Definition:...

. He began destroying some of his sculptures he created and made several suicide

Suicide

Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...

 attempts. His condition worsened and from July 11, 1888 to June 6, 1902, he was committed to the Mental Hospital of Corfu

Corfu

Corfu is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. It is the second largest of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the edge of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The island is part of the Corfu regional unit, and is administered as a single municipality. The...

. In 1901 his father died and the next year his mother went to Corfu and took Chalepas to Tinos. After his return, Chalepas lived under his mother's strict supervision, who blamed sculpture for her son's illness and prevented him from sculpting, destroying everything he created.

Rehabilitation

His mother died in 1916 and Chalepas began to work again with insufficient means, after a long time of inactivity. He gained attention and made contacts with intellectual circles in Athens. Also, many eminent personalities of the arts, such as Thomas Thomopoulos, member of the Academy of Athens

Academy of Athens (modern)

The Academy of Athens is Greece's national academy, and the highest research establishment in the country. It was established in 1926, and operates under the supervision of the Ministry of Education...

, and Zacharias Papantoniou

Zacharias Papantoniou

Zacharias Papantoniou was born in Karpenissi of Evrytania in February 1877 and died in Athens in 1940. He spent the first years of his life in Granitsa, where his father was a teacher. Apart from a writer, he was also a journalist. Papantoniou's work was basically the first to promote Evrytania...

, director of the National Gallery of Athens

National Gallery (Athens)

The National Art Gallery and Alexander Soutzos Museum is an art museum in Athens devoted to Greek and European art from the 14th century to the 20th century. It is directed by Marina Lambraki-Plaka.-History:...

, visited him in Tinos. In 1925, an exhibition of Chalepas' works was organized by the Academy of Athens, and in 1927 he received the Academy's “Award for Excellence in Arts and Letters”. In 1930 he moved to Athens and continued working until his death on September 15, 1938.

Art

The creative production of Chalepas is shared between two periods, the first, from the early years to the start of his mental illness, and the second, called the "post-sanity" period (1918–1938) which is divided into two phases. The first corresponds to the years of rehabilitation in Tinos, from 1918 to 1930, and the second spans the last years of his life, from 1930 to his death in 1938. Chalepas's early work shows the rare maturity of the artist from the very beginning.