In the 1821th and XNUMXth centuries, ambassadors traveling to the Sublime Porte discovered an Ottoman province in Greece, which was of great interest to artists and intellectuals. In XNUMX, the Greek War of Independence, supported militarily and financially by some European countries, aroused popular enthusiasm. Liberated in 1829, Greece proclaimed Athens its capital in 1834. Influenced by the German and French presence on its territory, the new Greek state built its modern cultural identity by drawing on the sources of French and German neoclassicism.
The defense of the national heritage and the European collaboration marked by the creation of archaeological institutes, such as the French school of Athens in 1846, are at the origin of an upheaval in the knowledge of the material past of Greece.
The exhibition, for the first time, intersects the history of archeology with the history of the development of the Greek state and modern arts. The excavations of Delos, Delphi or the Acropolis are at the origin of the rediscovery of a Greece colorful and far from the canons of neoclassicism.
In the late XNUMXth century, major world exhibitions featured new modern Greek art, marked by the recognition of Greece's Byzantine and Orthodox identity.
Insight into the catalogue: In 2021 Greece celebrates the bicentenary of its war of independence. Also in 1821, the Venus de Milo entered the collections of the Louvre museum. The volume traces the various cultural, diplomatic and artistic ties that united France and Greece between the XNUMXth and the beginning of the XNUMXth century, from the Embassy of the Marquis de Nointel in Constantinople to the independent exhibition of the Greek group. Paris. Through its ambassadors, artists and archaeologists, France is rediscovering a Greece strongly imbued with its Byzantine and Ottoman past. The ancient history of Greece is constantly enriched by the numerous excavations which allow us to bring the support of science to archeology, which was essentially literary before. After independence, the essential stake for Greece is to create its own and above all modern identity: Europe, strongly involved in this Revolution, circulates models, ideas and exerts its influence on the new State. Through many mediums, painting, sculpture, archeology, literature, costume, architecture, photography, we discover the extent of these relationships and the construction of modern Greek identity in contact with European nations. This brief history of Franco-Greek relations sheds light on what Greece owes France, but also what France owes Greece. Contributors: Maro Adami, Tassos Anastasiadis, Lucile Arnoux-Farnoux, Emmanuelle Brugerolles, Eleni-Anna Chlepa, Anne Coulié, Katerina Dellaporta, Jannic Durand, Alexandre Farnoux, Dominique de Font-Réaulx, Ruurd Halbertsma, Maria Katsanadaki, Polina Kos Lambraki Plaka , Ludovic Laugier, Elisabeth Lebreton, Jean-Luc Martinez, Christina Mitsopoulou, Jean-Charles Moretti, Petrochilos Nikolaos, Xenia Politou, Georges Tolias and Aliki Tsirgialou.
Cover image (detail) Nikos Lytras, Le jeune KM, 1914, huile sur toile (credit Louvre)
