Neoklis, a Greek icon painter

An interview of Jan Verdonk

Neoklis Kolliopoulos began painting icons in 1980 in a studio in Athens. He soon left there to begin painting professionally in the Byzantine style, like so many Greeks at the time. In 1991, Neoklis took on Jan Verdonk as an apprentice.

Neoklis has painted untold numbers and his work is mainly in churches in Greece, the holy Mountain Athos, Italy and France. Around the year 2000, icon painting devalued in his eyes. He saw feral, poor and cold icons around him. He became a decorative painter.

We know you as a colorist from the Teachings edition and from your icons. Since when have you been a colorist?

'I started seeing colors from one moment to the next. I was on the bus to Athens in 1982 and suddenly I saw the mountains blue. And the trees green, lots of shades of green by the way. I am a colorist. These days I work as a decorative painter. I can put on a wall of any color an invisible stripe of the same color. With six colors on my palette.'

Do you adhere to a color symbolism?

In every painting school there is a limited range of colors and they are repeated. The reason for the repetition is the color symbolism. The color scheme of the icon adapts to its purpose. What is the message to the viewer? Rest, peaceful stillness, harmony. Furthermore, there is exaggeration, but it is acceptable. No one, on seeing El Greco's stretched apostle figures, will exclaim, “What monsters!” because it is part of the message that transcends reality.

Red for me is the color of the Passion and of love. Blue is the infinite distance and the wisdom of God. Green is obedience and patience. Gold is not used on an icon because it is so expensive, but because it is the light of God. It is neither hot nor cold, neither light nor dark, the perfect neutral, a perfect mirror. Yellow is a substitute for gold.

Christ must have worn a chiton of unbleached linen. But artistic tradition has put classical garments on the saints, in the case of Christ perhaps on the basis of the psalm, “Unfathomably deep is his garden as his garment (himation). Surely this says it is a rich outer garment with many folds.'

What was it like to begin icon painting?

'In 1980 I went to Athos with a friend to join the monks. So that didn't work out. We said, we want to work for you. We were sent away - Na pate na soste tin psichi-sas (rather go save your soul). Also in Athens, we said to the painters: we can clean your studio and do jobs for you. They didn't want to. Then the icon painters made good money, that was the reason, it was a closed world. It was not like now, when everyone can find out everything as I told you everything and you told your students everything.

In short, the beginning was very discouraging. You didn't find any teachers. Then followed an ordinary scene in a café, we heard about an acquaintance of ours talking at the little table next to us, and we introduced ourselves. The girl said, “I am Afrodite and I paint icons.” And I grabbed her arm as soon as she said it, “And are you going to teach me?” In the end, I didn't stay long with her once I knew what I needed.'

What do you see when you look at an icon?

'I see two things: knowledge and ease. Often you see less knowledge and less ease. Then I already see less. If you see less knowledge, moderate ease but a lot of effort (is read off), the icon gets more value again.

It is easy to learn these days. Books with methods appear, there are training courses, the monasteries publish their icons, there is a favorable spiritual climate, there is even spiritual zeal, because when I was young you didn't see anyone in Athens beating a cross in public and now you do.

Yet at least 90% of the icons I see around me are of low quality. The training is not good. In fact, the clique that used to keep knowledge to themselves and get rich from it is at the helm of the educations, teaching people in three years what I can teach someone in two months. I see weak, miserable icons, a pawning off of art, and that in turn is related to the squandering of culture.'

Who are the masters of icon painting?

The masters are Panselinos, Feofan Grek, Theofánis the Cretan, the brothers Astrapas and later Damaskinos.

Kontoglou* was a mediator, an intermediary figure. To him we owe the revival of the Greek icon style around 1950. Kontoglou misunderstood Panselinos. Panselinos has no theological depth, he said. In fact, Panselinos worked with forms from antiquity, and that displeased Kontoglou, who himself wrote theological books. But icons are painting in addition to theology, and in this Panselinos was a master. Kontoglou himself was not bad, but not a master. His style is naive and folksy. There are people who insist on having an icon by Kontoglou. Why?

Do you look at Russian icons?

'Of course an icon painter must inform himself about Russian icons. They are unique, of course. There are different schools. They have extraordinary form and color. I consider it deep spiritual art. Feofan Grek got to the point of abstraction.'

How do you appreciate the work of El Greco and Damaskinos?

'Technically both are tremendously good. They were contemporaries and El Greco started out as an icon painter. Damaskinos shows harmony and tranquility and is a good artist.

El Greco has a spacious form and an “inner flame,” which evokes much more. He has a special light. His dark parts are good, so he creates interesting illuminations.

Why did the work of Theophanes the Cretan on Athos become so much better?

'Theophanes came to Athos after he painted the church of a Meteoric monastery, namely Saint Nikolaos Anapafsas. For you are not an icon painter until you have done a church. There was a lot of artistic interference from the Athonites in Theophanes' work, because remember morality: no naked body, no naked Saint Mary of Egypt, and some other themes had to be avoided. Every picture was an explanation of the gospel. That was sensitive. They made high demands. And Theophanes perhaps developed as an artist because of that.'

On all icons, was glykasmos applied to the face?

'Of course every painter tries to soften and round the edge of cheek, create a little transition of light. If you use watery paint you have already created a glykasmos there. Or with sfumato. Or with whatever, as long as it works, that's the criterion.'

Is icon painting an art?

Yes. Byzantine icon painting has two themes: historical and dogmatic. Those themes are offered in a painterly language.

As an art, Byzantine painting rests on the Hellenistic painting handed down in the Fayou portraits and on the art of classical antiquity, especially sculpture. And as is the case with all art, all sorts of factors play a role in the development of such art. There are inspirations and they can come from anywhere and lead anywhere. Look at how the Russians turned around the icon tradition. It's just what people like. How about El Greco's tall statues? For ten years you can look at a painting and one day you wake up and you like it. It does something to you.

Icon painting flourishes when spiritual and material conditions cooperate. At the time of the Cretan school, there was spiritual zeal and material prosperity. The painters in Crete sold their icons to the Italians and in Turkish territory the rich monasteries had nothing to fear from the government and they allowed the Cretan masters to come and work. After the fall of Crete (1669) there was a time of especially spiritual decline.'

What do the icons want to say?

'Byzantine icon painting wants to appeal to people. This is a deeper psychological goal, which is wrapped up in this painting, just as music, by the way, wants and can convey ideas and feelings.

Church art is the gospel for those who cannot read, so the icon shows us man changing outwardly through participation in the uncreated divine light. The icon wants to persuade man to become the glorified man. Mission accomplished when it penetrates man.

There is nothing wrong with the art of the Renaissance. But the unique message of the Byzantine icons, moreover, is that these portraits of saints show man glorified by definition, not in his ideal, realistic Renaissance appearance, but as a partaker of the uncreated divine light, and this is what the golden nimbus on his head expresses - for the gold is the divine light. This is not the rebirth of art (re-naissance) but the rebirth of man. There are also no more races in the icons: white or black or yellow no longer exist.

What does Byzantine painting have to offer us Dutch today?

To share in the divine light is the message of these icons. Whether Byzantine painting will get off the ground will depend on the material and spiritual factors that always play a role in icon art. Fortunately, the Byzantine is not a regional style on which the Greeks have a monopoly. Anyone can pick it up.

How can an icon painter achieve perfection?

By working and studying.

*Fotis Kontoglou single-handedly renewed the realistic Greek icon painting style, by going to work in the true Byzantine school, which he had rediscovered in the monasteries of Athos.