Φέτος, τριάντα χρόνια μετά την Μαρία Κάλλας και πενήντα μετά τον Νίκο Καζαντζάκη, στην Ελλάδα βλέπουμε τον Σταύρο Λάλα να επιστρέφει στην Καβάλα από την Αμερική και μια ταινία [Γιάννη Σμαραγδή και Δημήτρη Σιατόπουλου] για τον Δομήνικο Θεοτοκόπουλο όπου ο Τιτσιάνο εμφανίζεται να λέγει στον Κρητικό μαθητή του: 'Never show them everything'.Διαισθάνομαι ότι ο Σιατόπουλος μπορεί να είχε άλλη άποψη από τον Ν.Μ. Παναγιωτάκη και φοβάμαι πολύ για την ακριβή ιστορικότητα τών χαρακτήρων. Σαφώς οι σχέσεις τών Ελλήνων με τους Ιταλούς δεν μπορούν να αντιστοιχεισθούν με τις οποιεσδήποτε σχέσεις Ελλήνων και Τούρκων. Παρ' όλη την Αμερικανική Γενέτειρα τής Κάλλας και την Ιταλική σφραγίδα πάνω της, η Ελληνικότητά της είναι επίσης πάντα παρούσα και ορατή, ιδίως στη σκέψη της. Η εκ Κωνσταντινουπόλεως καταγωγή τής μητέρας της, ποτέ δεν θα δικαιολογούσε σε κανέναν, εάν αντί τού Μενεγγίνι η Κάλλας είχε αντίστοιχη σχέση με κάποιον Τούρκο και αντί τής Ιταλικής προφοράς τού λόγου της, είχε μια απόχρωση τουρκική, κατάλληλη για αμανέδες.
Τώρα γιατί ο Σταύρος, στην Αμερική ήταν Steven Lalas και γιατί ο Δομήνικος δεν ήταν Κυριάκος και γιατί η Άννα Μαρία Καικιλία Σοφία Καλογεροπούλου έπρεπε να γίνει Maria Callas, είναι ένα ζήτημα, το οποίο δεν θα μάς έκανε κακό να το αναλύσουμε. Πάντως ο Στέφανος δεν ήταν Σταύρος.Ας έχουμε πάντα υπ' όψιν μας, ότι ο Δομήνικος γεννήθηκε στο Ηράκλειο, όταν η Κρήτη ήταν μέρος τής Βενετίας [Ενετοκρατία, Φραγκοκρατία μέχρι το 1669], η Μαρία στην Αμερική, όπως και ο Σταύρος και, ο Καζαντζάκης στο Ηράκλειο όταν αυτό ήταν μέρος τής Οθωμανικής Αυτοκρατορίας. Πολλοί από τους σπουδαίους Έλληνες, τόσο τού αρχαίου κόσμου όσο και τού σύγχρονου, έχουν τόπο καταγωγής την Μικρά Ασία και την Πόλη. Άλλοι τής Ελλάδος, μόνο στο εξωτερικό βρήκαν τον ρυθμό τους.
Για τον Δομήνικο, οι ιστορικές πληροφορίες είναι λίγες και οι ρομαντικές ερμηνείες πολλές, συνεπώς δεν γνωρίζουμε τι ακριβώς έλεγε ο Τιτσιάνο στον Δομήνικο και τί ακριβώς εφήρμοσε ο Δομήνικος στη ζωή του, όσον αυτή αφορά στάση ζωής απέναντι στον Πλατωνικό Κόσμο τών Ιδεών, τον Χριστό, την είσοδο τών Ισπανών Ιουδαίων στη Θεσσαλονίκη, την τεχνική [τεχνοτροπία] τού Μπαρόκ στην Ευρωπαϊκή Τέχνη, Σκέψη και Διαφωτισμό.
Αλλά και η ανεπανάληπτη Μαρία, μάλλον [σε κάποια περίοδο τής διαδρομής της] ασπάζεται την θεωρία περί Μη Καταθέσεως τών Πάντων, ομιλεί για κεφάλαιο [το θείο δώρο τής φωνής της] και τόκο [προϊόν προς διάθεση], όπου το κεφάλαιο πρέπει πάντοτε να μένει άθικτο. Αναφέρεται στον συνθέτη Βιντσέντσο Μπελίνι, ο οποίος δεν αποκλείεται να ήταν απόγονος των Αναγεννησιακών ζωγράφων τής Βενετίας και συνδυάζοντας κανείς πώς ο [Βενετικής καταγωγής] Κορνάρος έγινε πατριώτης στη Κρήτη και πώς ο Δομήνικος τα κατάφερε στην Ευρώπη, αρχίζει να προβληματίζεται.
Με τον Διγενή Ακρίτα και τον Ερωτόκριτο, τον Κοραή και τον Κοδρικά, ο Πόλεμος για Ανεξαρτησία τών Ελλήνων τού 1821 πώς θα έφερνε την Ανεξαρτησία όταν κανένας δεν μπορούσε να συνεννοηθεί με τον άλλο, αφού ο καθένας ομιλούσε κάποια δική του ιδεολογοπολιτική διάλεκτο; Έτσι ο Καζαντζάκης έκανε τον εξάμετρο Ομηρικό στίχο, δεκαπεντασύλλαβο και οι Ξένοι κατάλαβαν [ή θέλησαν να καταλάβουν] ότι οι Έλληνες πήγαν στον Σαγγάριο και στα Φρυγικά υψίπεδα [1919-22] για να καταλάβουν την Πόλη, όταν το 1912, τα Δωδεκάνησα τα πήραν Ετρούσκοι, Τοσκάνοι, Ρωμάνοι.
O Νικόλαος Μ. Παναγιωτάκης, (1935-1997) μάλλον κάτι θα είχε να σημειώσει περί Εθνοτήτων, Ελευθερίας, Τέχνης και Γραμμάτων.
Πολλοί θα ισχυρισθούν ότι και οι Πυθαγόριοι δεν κατέθεταν όλη τους την γνώση στους Ακουσματικούς, αλλά όπως και πολλοί άλλοι Μύστες, έτσι και ο Πλάτων μπορεί να μην μάς είπε όλα όσα γνώριζε.
Ο Χριστός πάντως δηλώνει στους Μαθητές του [όπως μάς δηλώνει ο αυτόπτης μάρτυς Ιωάννης ο Θεολόγος και Ευαγγελιστής] ότι, ό,τι ήξερε τούς το είπε, αφού τους θεωρεί φίλους του και όχι δούλους.
Τώρα εάν ο Σταύρος έπρεπε να είναι επίσης πιστός και στην Γενέτειρά του την Αμερική, είναι κάτι που αξίζει να το μελετήσουμε.
Παρακολουθώντας ανθρώπους πένητες, άστεγους, γύφτους, καλλιτέχνες, επιστήμονες και σκύλους αδέσποτους, ίσως πολλές αξίες πάρουν μια καλή ερμηνεία.
Έχω την άποψη, ότι υπάρχουν και στιγμές, όπου ο κάτοχος αξιών και αρετής, ο διακομιστής, μπορεί να τα δώσει όλα.
Έχω επίσης την άποψη ότι τόσο ο Πυθαγόρας όσο και ο Πλάτωνας, μάς είπαν όλα όσα γνώριζαν, άλλωστε τι νόημα θα είχε να πάρουν τις γνώσεις των στον τάφο;
Αυτοί οι Ιππότες τής Μάλτας τής Ρόδου και τών Ηνωμένων Εθνών, τι σκοπό έχουν τώρα, μετά το Δεύτερο Βατικανό και μετά το Ιράκ; Μήπως έχουν Ιδέες για Κοσσυφοπέδιο και Μοναστήρι;
2 σχόλια:
Doménikos Theotokópoulos
born 1541, Candia [Iráklion], Crete
died April 7, 1614, Toledo, Spain
Doménikos Theotokópoulos master of Spanish painting, whose highly individual dramatic and expressionistic style met with the puzzlement of his contemporaries but gained newfound appreciation in the 20th century. He also worked as a sculptor and as an architect.
El Greco never forgot that he was of Greek descent and usually signed his paintings in Greek letters with his full name, Doménikos Theotokópoulos. He is, nevertheless, generally known as El Greco (“the Greek”), a name he acquired when he lived in Italy, where the custom of identifying a man by designating country or city of origin was a common practice. The curious form of the article (El), however, may be the Venetian dialect or more likely from the Spanish.
Early years
Because Crete, his homeland, was then a Venetian possession and he was a Venetian citizen, he decided to go to Venice to study. The exact year in which this took place is not known; but speculation has placed the date anywhere from 1560, when he was 19, to 1566. In Venice he entered the studio of Titian, who was the greatest painter of the day. Knowledge of El Greco's years in Italy is limited. A letter of Nov. 16, 1570, written by Giulio Clovio, an illuminator in the service of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, requested lodging in the Palazzo Farnese for “a young man from Candia, a pupil of Titian.” On July 8, 1572, “the Greek painter” is mentioned in a letter sent from Rome by a Farnese official to the same cardinal. Shortly thereafter, on Sept. 18, 1572, “Dominico Greco” paid his dues to the guild of St. Luke in Rome. How long the young artist remained in Rome is unknown, because he may have returned to Venice, c. 1575–76, before he left for Spain.
The certain works painted by El Greco in Italy are completely in the Venetian Renaissance style of the 16th century. They show no effect of his Byzantine heritage except possibly in the faces of old men—for example, in the “Christ Healing the Blind.” The placing of figures in deep space and the emphasis on an architectural setting in High Renaissance style are particularly significant in his early pictures, such as “Christ Cleansing the Temple.” The first evidence of El Greco's extraordinary gifts as a portraitist appears in Italy in a portrait of Giulio Clovio and Vincentio Anastagi.
Middle years
El Greco first appeared in Spain in the spring of 1577, initially at Madrid, later in Toledo. One of his main reasons for seeking a new career in Spain must have been knowledge of Philip II's great project, the building of the monastery of San Lorenzo at El Escorial, some 26 miles (42 km) northwest of Madrid. Moreover, the Greek must have met important Spanish churchmen in Rome through Fulvio Orsini, a humanist and librarian of the Palazzo Farnese. It is known that at least one Spanish ecclesiastic who spent some time in Rome at this period—Luis de Castilla—became El Greco's intimate friend and was eventually named one of the two executors of his last testament. Luis' brother, Diego de Castilla, gave El Greco his first commission in Spain, which possibly had been promised before the artist left Italy.
In 1578 Jorge Manuel, the painter's only son, was born at Toledo, the offspring of Doña Jerónima de Las Cuevas. She appears to have outlived El Greco, and, although he acknowledged both her and his son, he never married her. That fact has puzzled all writers, because he mentioned her in various documents, including his last testament. It may be that El Greco had married unhappily in his youth in Crete or Italy and therefore could not legalize another attachment.
For the rest of his life El Greco continued to live in Toledo, busily engaged on commissions for the churches and monasteries there and in the province. He became a close friend of the leading humanists, scholars, and churchmen. Antonio de Covarrubias, a classical scholar and son of the architect Alonso de Covarrubias, was a friend whose portrait he painted. Fray Hortensio Paravicino, the head of the Trinitarian order in Spain and a favourite preacher of Philip II of Spain, dedicated four sonnets to El Greco, one of them recording his own portrait by the artist. Luis de Góngora y Argote, one of the major literary figures of the late 16th century, composed a sonnet to the tomb of the painter. Another writer, Don Pedro de Salazar de Mendoza, figured among the most intimate circle of El Greco's entourage.
The inventories compiled after his death confirm the fact that he was a man of extraordinary culture—a true Renaissance humanist. His library, which gives some idea of the breadth and range of his interests, included works of the major Greek authors in Greek, numerous books in Latin, and others in Italian and in Spanish: Plutarch's Lives, Petrarch's poetry, Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, the Bible in Greek, the proceedings of the Council of Trent, and architectural treatises by Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, Giacomo da Vignola, Leon Battista Alberti, Andrea Palladio, and Sebastiano Serlio. El Greco himself prepared an edition of Vitruvius, accompanied by drawings, but the manuscript is lost.
In 1585 and thereafter El Greco lived in the large, late-medieval palace of the Marqués de Villena. Although it is near the site of the now-destroyed Villena Palace, the museum in Toledo called the Casa y Museo del Greco (“Home and Museum of El Greco”) was never his residence. It can be assumed that he needed space for his atelier more than for luxurious living. In 1605 the palace was listed by the historian Francisco de Pisa as one of the handsomest in the city; it was not a miserable ruined structure, as some romantic writers have presumed. El Greco surely lived in considerable comfort, even though he did not leave a large estate at his death.
El Greco's first commission in Spain was for the high altar and the two lateral altars in the conventual church of Santo Domingo el Antiguo at Toledo (1577–79). Never before had the artist had a commission of such importance and scope. Even the architectural design of the altar frames, reminiscent of the style of the Venetian architect Palladio, was prepared by El Greco. The painting for the high altar, “Assumption of the Virgin,” also marked a new period in the artist's life, revealing the full extent of his genius. The figures are brought close into the foreground, and in the Apostles a new brilliance of colour is achieved. The technique remains Venetian in the laying on of the paint andin the liberal use of white highlights; yet the intensity of the colours and the manipulation of contrasts, verging on dissonance, is distinctly El Greco. For the first time the importance of his assimilation of the art of Michelangelo comes to the fore, particularly in the painting of the “Trinity,” in the upper part of the high altar (now in the PradoMuseum, Madrid), where the powerful sculpturesque body ofthe nude Christ leaves no doubt of the ultimate source of inspiration. In the lateral altar painting of the “Resurrection,” the poses of the standing soldiers and the contrapposto (a position in which the upper and lower parts of the body are contrasted in direction) of those asleep are also clearly Michelangelesque in inspiration.
At the same time, El Greco created another masterpiece of extraordinary originality—the “Espolio” (“Disrobing of Christ”). In designing the composition vertically and compactly in the foreground he seems to have been motivated by the desire to show the oppression of Christ by his cruel tormentors. He chose a method of space elimination that is common to middle and late 16th-century Italian painters known as Mannerists, and at the same time he probably recalled late Byzantine paintings in which the superposition of heads row upon row is employed to suggest a crowd. The original altar of gilded wood that El Greco designed for the painting has been destroyed, but his small sculptured group of the “Miracle of St. Ildefonso” still survives on the lower centre of the frame.
El Greco's tendency to elongate the human figure becomes more notable at this time—for example, in the handsome and unrestored “St. Sebastian.” The same extreme elongation of body is also present in Michelangelo's work, in the painting of the Venetians Tintoretto and Paolo Veronese, and in the art of the leading Mannerist painters. The increased slenderness of Christ's long body against the dramatic clouds in “Crucifixion with Donors” foreshadows the artist's late style.
El Greco's connection with the court of Philip II was brief and unsuccessful, consisting first of the “Allegory of the Holy League” (“Dream of Philip II”; 1578–79) and second of the “Martyrdom of St. Maurice” (1580–82). The latter painting did not meet with the approval of the king, who promptly ordered another work of the same subject to replace it. Thus ended the great artist's connection with the Spanish court. The king may have been troubled by the almost shocking brilliance of the yellows as contrasted to the ultramarine in the costumes of the main group of the painting, which includes St. Maurice in the centre. On the other hand, to the modern eye El Greco's daring use of colour is particularly appealing. The brushwork remains Venetian in the way that the colour suggests form and in the free illusionistic and atmospheric creation of space.
The “Burial of the Count de Orgaz” (1586–88; Santo Tomé, Toledo) is universally regarded as El Greco's masterpiece. The supernatural vision of Gloria (“Heaven”) above and the impressive array of portraits represent all aspects of this extraordinary genius's art. El Greco clearly distinguished between heaven and earth: above, heaven is evoked by swirling icy clouds, semi abstract in their shape, and the saints are tall and phantom like; below, all is normal in the scale and proportions of the figures. According to the legend, Saints Augustine and Stephen appeared miraculously to lay the Count de Orgaz in his tomb as a reward for his generosity to their church. In golden and red vestments they bend reverently over the body of the count, who is clad in magnificent armour that reflects the yellow and reds of the other figures. The young boy at the left is El Greco's son, Jorge Manuel; on a handkerchief in his pocket is inscribed the artist's signature and the date 1578, the yearof the boy's birth. The men in contemporary 16th-century dress who attend the funeral are unmistakably prominent members of Toledan society. El Greco's Mannerist method of composition is nowhere more clearly expressed than here, where all of the action takes place in the frontal plane.
Later life and works.
From 1590 until his death El Greco's painterly output was prodigious. His pictures for the churches and convents of theToledan region include the “Holy Family with the Magdalen”and the “Holy Family with St. Anne.” He repeated several times the “Agony in the Garden,” in which a supernatural world is evoked through strange shapes and brilliant, cold, clashing colours. The devotional theme of “Christ Carrying the Cross” is known in 11 originals by El Greco and many copies. El Greco depicted most of the major saints, often repeating the same composition: St. Dominic, Mary Magdalen, St. Jerome as cardinal, St. Jerome in penitence, and St. Peter in tears. St. Francis of Assisi, however, was by far the saint most favoured by the artist; about 25 originals representing St. Francis survive and, in addition, more than 100 pieces by followers. The most popular of several types was “St. Francis and Brother Leo Meditating on Death.”
Two major series (“Apostolados”) survive representing Christ and the Twelve Apostles in 13 canvases: one in the sacristy of Toledo Cathedral (1605–10) and another, unfinished set (1612–14) in the El Greco House and Museum at Toledo. The frontal pose of the Christ blessing in this series suggests a medieval Byzantine figure, although the colour and brushwork are El Greco's personal handling of Venetian technique. In these works the devotional intensity of mood reflects the religious spirit of Roman Catholic Spain in the period of the Counter-Reformation. Although Greek by descent and Italian by artistic preparation, the artist became so immersed in the religious environment of Spain that he became the most vital visual representative of Spanish mysticism. Yet, because of the combination of these three cultures, he developed into an artist so individual that he belongs to no conventional school but is a lonely genius of unprecedented emotional power and imagination.
Several major commissions came El Greco's way in the last15 years of his life: three altars for the Chapel of San José, Toledo (1597–99); three paintings (1596–1600) for the Colegio de Doña María de Aragon, an Augustinian monastery in Madrid; and the high altar, four lateral altars, and the painting “St. Ildefonso” for the Hospital de la Caridad at Illescas (1603–05).
Extreme distortion of body characterizes El Greco's last works—for example, the “Adoration of the Shepherds” (Prado Museum, Madrid), painted in 1612–14 for his own burial chapel. The brilliant, dissonant colours and the strange shapes and poses create a sense of wonder and ecstasy, as the shepherd and angels celebrate the miracle of the newly born child. In the unfinished “Vision of St. John,”El Greco's imagination led him to disregard the laws of nature even more. The gigantic swaying figure of St. John the Evangelist, in abstractly painted icy-blue garments, reveals the souls of the martyrs who cry out for deliverance. In like manner, the figure of the Madonna in the “Immaculate Conception” (1607–14; Santa Cruz Museum, Toledo), originally in the Church of San Vicente, floats heavenward in a paroxysm of ecstasy supported by long, distorted angels. The fantastic view of Toledo below, abstractly rendered, is dazzling in its ghostly moonlit brilliance, and the clusters of roses and lilies, symbols of the Virgin's purity, are unalloyed in their sheer beauty.
In his three surviving landscapes, El Greco demonstrated his characteristic tendency to dramatize rather than to describe. The “View of Toledo” (c. 1595; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) renders a city stormy, sinister, and impassioned with the same dark, foreboding clouds that appear in the background of his earlier “Crucifixion with Donors.” Painting in his studio, he rearranged the buildings depicted in the picture to suit his compositional purpose. “View and Plan of Toledo” (1610–14; Greco House and Museum, Toledo) is almost like a vision, all of the buildings painted glistening white. An inscription by the artist on the canvas explains quite fancifully that he had placed the Hospital of San Juan Bautista on a cloud in the foreground sothat it could better be seen and that the map in the picture shows the streets of the city. At the left, a river god represents the Tagus, which flows around Toledo, a city builton rocky heights. Although El Greco had lived in Italy and in Rome itself, he rarely used such classical Roman motives.
The one picture by El Greco that has a mythological subject, so dear to most Renaissance artists, is the “Laocoon” (1610–14; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.). For ancient Troy he substituted a view of Toledo, similar to the one just discussed, and he displayed little regard for classical tradition in painting the highly expressive but great, sprawling body of the priest.
Although El Greco was primarily a painter of religious subjects, his portraits, though less numerous, are equally high in quality. Two of his finest late works are the portraits of “Fray Felix Hortensio Paravicino” (1609; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) and “Cardinal Don Fernando Niño de Guevara”(c. 1600; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). Both are seated, as was customary after the time of Raphael in portraits presenting important ecclesiastics. Paravicino, a Trinitarian monk and a famous orator and poet, is depicted as a sensitive, intelligent man. The pose is essentially frontal, and the white habit and black cloak provide highly effective pictorial contrasts. Cardinal Niño de Guevara, in crimson robes, is almost electrical in his inherent energy, a man accustomed to command. El Greco's portrait of “Jeronimo de Cevallos” (1605–10; Prado, Madrid), on the other hand, is most sympathetic. The work is half-length, painted thinly and limited to black and white. The huge ruff collar, then in fashion, enframes the kindly face. By such simple means, the artist created a memorable characterization that places him in the highest rank as a portraitist, along with Titian and Rembrandt.
No followers of any consequence remained in Toledo after El Greco's death in 1614. Only his son and a few unknown painters produced weak copies of the master's work. His art was so personally and so highly individual that it could not survive his passing. Moreover, the new Baroque style of Caravaggio and of the Carracci soon supplanted the last surviving traits of 16th-century Mannerism.
Κοδρικάς, Παναγιώτης
(1762-1827)· λόγιος, διπλωμάτης. Ο Παναγιώτης Κοδρικάς γεννήθηκε στην Αθήνα το 1762 και ανήκε στην οικογένεια Καντζηλιέρη. Για να επιζήσει το όνομα της μητρικής του οικογένειας, Κοδρικά, ο Παναγιώτης προτίμησε να το κρατήσει μετά τον θάνατο του τελευταίου Κοδρικά. Στα 1778 ο Π. Κοδρικάς πήγε στην Κωνσταντινούπολη, όπου μπαίνει στους φαναριώτικους κύκλους, διατελώντας αρχικά γραμματικός του Πατριάρχη Ιεροσολύμων και από το 1783 του ηγεμόνα της Βλαχίας, Μιχαήλ Σούτσου. Το 1789 ως το 1790 ο Κοδρικάς επισκέπτεται για τελευταία φορά την Αθήνα· το 1790 βρίσκεται στη δραγομανία του στόλου και τον επόμενο χρόνο στο στρατόπεδο της Σούμνας μαζί με τον Μιχ. Σούτσο. Το 1791 ο Κοδρικάς ακολουθεί τον Μιχ. Σούτσο στη Βλαχία μέχρι το 1793 και από το 1793 ως το 1795 στη Μολδαβία. Ως γραμματικός του Μιχ. Σούτσου, ο Κοδρικάς διεξήγαγε την αλληλογραφία του Σούτσου με τους πράκτορες του στις πρωτεύουσες της δυτικής Ευρώπης πράγμα που μύησε τον Κοδρικά στα θέματα της ευρωπαϊκής διπλωματίας. Το γεγονός αυτό εξηγεί τον διορισμό του Κοδρικά στην πρώτη μόνιμη εκπροσώπηση της Τουρκίας στη Γαλλία. Στις 14 Μαρτίου 1797 ο Κοδρικάς ξεκινά για τη Γαλλία, η οποία υπήρξε η θετή του πατρίδα· παράλληλα με την επίσημη διπλωματική του ιδιότητα, ο Κοδρικάς υπηρετεί και το γαλλικό υπουργείο των Εξωτερικών. Και όταν ο Τούρκος πρέσβης αναγκάστηκε να επιστρέψει στην Τουρκία, ο Κοδρικάς δεν τον ακολούθησε αλλά παρέμεινε στο Παρίσι ως μεταφραστής διερμηνέας του γαλλικού υπουργείου των Εξωτερικών και ειδικός στα θέματα της Οθωμανικής Αυτοκρατορίας.
Στο Παρίσι ο Κοδρικάς αποκτά γρήγορα τη φήμη του γνώστη των ελληνικών θεμάτων, πολιτικών και φιλολογικών: προστατεύεται από τον κόμητα d'Hauterive και αποκτά μια θέση μέσα στη λόγια παρισινή ζωή, σχετίζεται με τους φιλολόγους Villoison και Fr. Bast. Ήδη από την εποχή των παραδουνάβιων ηγεμονιών, ο Κοδρικάς είχε ασχοληθεί με τα γράμματα μεταφράζοντας το Περί πληθύος κόσμων του Fontenelle και το Essay on Man του Αλεξ. Pope. Οι μεταφράσεις αυτές —η πρώτη δημοσιεύτηκε το 1794 ενώ η δεύτερη παρέμεινε αδημοσίευτη— μαρτυρούν μια προοδευτική διάθεση του Κοδρικά, καθώς και την επίδραση την οποία δέχθηκε από την κίνηση του Διαφωτισμού. Ακόμη, στις ηγεμονίες ο Κοδρικάς είχε γνωριστεί με την ομάδα του Δημητρίου Καταρτζή, που, αν και δεν συμφώνησε με τις γλωσσικές θεωρίες του αρχηγού της, επηρεάστηκε ωστόσο από τη φιλοσοφική του τοποθέτηση.
Το 1803 ο Κοδρικάς δημοσιεύει στο Παρίσι τη μελέτη του Observations sur I'opinion de quelques hellenistes tou-chant le grec moderne και αργότερα μια απάντηση στο βιβλίο του Bartholdy, Voyage en Grece fait dans les annees 1803 et 1804, όπου περιγράφονται κακόπιστα οι Έλληνες. Οι συγγραφικές αυτές δραστηριότητες του Κοδρικά προκάλεσαν την έχθρα του Κοραή και, λίγα χρόνια αργότερα, θα ξεσπάσει ανάμεσα τους μία από τις μεγαλύτερες φιλολογικές διαμάχες του νεώτερου ελληνισμού. Φυλλάδια, επιστολές, λίβελλοι είναι τα μέσα αυτής της πολεμικής, η οποία άρχισε το 1816.
Αφορμή της διαμάχης αυτής στάθηκε η επανέκδοση του περιοδικού Ερμής ο Λόγιος από δύο αφοσιωμένους οπαδούς του Κοραή, τον Θεόκλητο Φαρμακίδη και τον Κωνσταντίνο Κοκκινάκη. Ο Κοδρικάς απαντά στο φυλλάδιο της αγγελίας της επανέκδοσης του Λόγιου Ερμή μ' ένα επιστολιμαίο δημοσίευμα με τον τίτλο «προς τους ελλογιμωτάτους νέους εκδότας του Λογίου Ερμού Εις Βιένναν της Αουστρίας»· στο δημοσίευμα αυτό, ο Κοδρικάς υποστηρίζει την αρχαΐζουσα γλώσσα και δίνει συμβουλές, σύμφωνα με τις οποίες πρέπει να συντάσσουν το περιοδικό για ν' αποφεύγουν «τας παραλόγους και γελοίας διορθώσεις, τας οποίας αυτόκλητοι νομοθέται και αυτεπάγγελτοι καθηγηταί ετόλμησαν να κάμουν εις τας πανδήμως συνηθισμένας εκφράσεις της κοινής διαλέκτου του γένους μας», στις οποίες περιλαμβάνει και «όλα τα ευφυώς κωμωδηθέντα κορακιστικά». Οι προσωπικές αυτές αιχμές κατά του Κοραή οδηγήθηκαν τελικά στο σημείο κήρυξης ανοικτού πολέμου εκ μέρους του Κοδρικά.
Οι εκδότες του Λόγιου Ερμή απαντούν στον Κοδρικά με τον «Λόγο προς τους Έλληνας», όπου αναιρούν τα επιχειρήματα του, ενώ ο Κοραής, με το ψευδώνυμο Νικόλαος Γεωργίου Κύπριος, έδωσε τη δική του απάντηση με την «επιστολή προς τους εκδότας του Λογίου Ερμού» και στην οποία καταλήγει ως εξής: «Έλεγα και πάλι συγχωρήσατε να σας είπω· μη φοβείσθε πλέον τα βέλη των σχολαστικών. Τώρα δε προσθέτω ότι ουδέ να τους αντιπολεμήτε συμφέρει, ούτε εις σας ούτε εις το γένος». Ωστόσο, την επιστολή αυτή του Κοραή ακολούθησε ένα πλήθος από ανώνυμα και οξύτατα φυλλάδια-λίβελλοι με χαρακτήρα φιλολογικών πραγματειών καθώς και σατιρικά ποιήματα. Στο μεταξύ ο Κοδρικάς δημοσιεύει ένα ογκώδες έργο το 1818, τη Μελέτη της κοινής ελληνικής διαλέκτου, όπου εξετάζει τα προβλήματα, τα οποία αφορούν στην ελληνική γλώσσα. Όμως μέσα στο έργο του αυτό ο Κοδρικάς συνεχώς στρέφεται κατά του Κοραή, τον οποίο αναγνωρίζει ως «σεβάσμιον Γέροντα και Εκδότην Παλαιών Συγγραφέων», αλλά αποκαλεί και «νεολόγον Αιρεσιάρχην» και «Δημεγέρτην». Όπως έχει διαπιστωθεί, ο Κοδρικάς δεν μπόρεσε να δώσει επιστημονικές βάσεις στις γλωσσικές του θεωρίες και κάνει παρερμηνείες ορισμένων δεδομένων της ελληνικής ιστορίας και φιλολογίας. Στην υποστήριξη της αρχαΐζουσας γλώσσας, ο Κοδρικάς βρήκε επίσης συνήγορο τον πατριάρχη Γρηγόριο Ε'· όμως οι διενέξεις αυτές έπαυσαν με την έκρηξη της Ελληνικής Επανάστασης.
Ο Κοδρικάς είχε επίσης διαφορετικές αντιλήψεις από τον Κοραή, αναφορικά με την Ελληνική Επανάσταση. Όπως υποστήριξε στα φυλλάδια του Remarques politiques sur la cause des Grecs, Παρίσι 1822 και Lettre messenienne sur I'intervention des puissances alliees dans les affaires de la Grece, Παρίσι 1824, ο Κοδρικάς έβλεπε αρχικά να δημιουργείται όχι ένα ελεύθερο ελληνικό κράτος αλλά μια ηγεμονία υποτελής στον Σουλτάνο κατά το σύστημα των παραδουνάβιων ηγεμονιών: σχέδιο που θα εξυπηρετούσε όχι μονάχα τα ελληνικά αλλά και τα ευρωπαϊκά συμφέροντα. Στο δεύτερο όμως φυλλάδιο αλλάζει γνώμη και σαν αληθινός Φαναριώτης θεωρεί συμφέρον των Χριστιανών ηγεμόνων να εισέλθει η Ελλάδα στην οικογένεια των χριστιανικών κρατών της Ευρώπης. Επανειλημμένα ο Κοδρικάς απευθύνει στους Έλληνες και κυρίως στους φαναριώτικους κύκλους συμβουλές και σκέψεις για την πολιτική συγκρότηση του Αγώνα και φιλοδοξούσε να διοριστεί πρώτος διπλωματικός αντιπρόσωπος της Ελλάδας στο Παρίσι, γεγονός που βρήκε την υποστήριξη του Αλ. Μαυροκορδάτου αλλά την αντίδραση θαυμαστών του Κοραή.
Ο Κοδρικάς κατά την Επανάσταση θεωρούσε ευνοϊκή για τα ελληνικά ζητήματα μια συμφωνία ανάμεσα στην ελληνική κυβέρνηση και στο τάγμα των Ιπποτών της Μάλτας, οι οποίοι ήθελαν να δώσουν ένα δάνειο στους Έλληνες με αντάλλαγμα ένα νησί του Αιγαίου. Όπως αναφέρει ο Κοδρικάς, σε επιστολή του προς τον Αλ. Μαυροκορδάτο το 1823, η συμφωνία αυτή της ελληνικής κυβέρνησης θα είχε κυρίως ως επακόλουθο της την αναγνώριση της πολιτικής της ύπαρξης σε διεθνές επίπεδο. Τελικά όμως ο Κοδρικάς πείστηκε ότι μια παρόμοια ενέργεια θα ήταν επιζήμια για τους Έλληνες και προσπάθησε να τους αποτρέψει απ' αυτήν. Ο Κοδρικάς συνέχισε την υπηρεσία του στο γαλλικό Υπουργείο των Εξωτερικών μέχρι τον θάνατο του, τον Οκτώβριο του 1827.
ΒΙΒΛΙΟΓΡ.:
Κ. Θ. Δημαράς, Ο Κοραής και η εποχή του. Αθήναι 1953, σ. 37-45
/ Του ίδιου, Φροντίσματα. Από την Αναγέννηση στο Διαφωτισμό, Αθήναι 1963, το κεφάλαιο «Προτομή Του Κοδρικά», σ. 67-88
/ Παναγιώτης Κοδρικάς, Εφημερίδες, έκδ. 'Αλκή Αγγέλου, ΟΜΕΔ, Αθήναι 1963
/ Απ.Β. Δασκαλάκης, Κοραής και Κοδρικάς. Η μεγάλη φιλολογική διαμάχη των Ελλήνων 1815-1821, Αθήναι 1966
/ Jean Dimakis, «P. Kodrikas, face aux projets de I'ordre de Malte en Grece: un echange de lettres avec le Colonel Voutier», Balkan Studies, 19 (1978), σ. 51-58.
Knights of Malta
Also called Hospitalers, or Hospitallers, or formally (since 1961) Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta, also called (1113–1309) Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem, or (1309–1522) Order of the Knights of Rhodes, or (1530–1798) Sovereign and Military Order of the Knights of Malta, or (1834–1961) Knights Hospitaller of St. John of Jerusalem a religious order of hospitalers which was founded at Jerusalem in the 11th century and which, headquartered in Rome, continues its humanitarian tasks in most parts of the modern world under several slightly different names and jurisdictions.
The origin of the Knights was an 11th-century hospital in Jerusalem founded by Italian merchants from Amalfi to care for sick pilgrims. After the Christian conquest of Jerusalem in 1099 during the First Crusade, the hospital's superior, a monk named Gerard, intensified his work in Jerusalem and founded hostels in Provençal and Italian cities on the route to the Holy Land. The order was formally named and recognized on Feb. 15, 1113, in a papal bull issued by Pope Paschal II. Raymond de Puy, who succeeded Gerard in 1120, substituted the Augustinian rule for the Benedictine and began building the power of the organization. It acquired wealth and lands and combined the task of tending the sick with waging war on Islām. Along with the Templars, the Hospitallers became the most formidable military order in the Holy Land.
When the Muslims recaptured Jerusalem in 1187, the Hospitallers removed their headquarters first to Margat and then in 1197 to Acre. When the crusader principalities came to an end after the fall of Acre in 1291, the Hospitallers moved to Limassol in Cyprus. In 1309 they acquired Rhodes, which they came to rule as an independent state, with right of coinage and other attributes of sovereignty. Under the order's rule, the master (grand master from c. 1430) was elected for life (subject to papal confirmation) and ruled a celibate brotherhood of knights, chaplains, and serving brothers. For more than two centuries the Knights of Rhodes were the scourge of Muslim shipping on the eastern Mediterranean.
By the 15th century the Turks had succeeded the Arabs as the protagonists of militant Islām, and in 1522 Süleyman the Magnificent laid final siege to Cyprus. After six months the Knights capitulated and on Jan. 1, 1523, sailed out of Rhodes with as many of the citizens as chose to follow them. For seven years the wandering Knights were without a base, but in 1530 the Holy Roman emperor Charles V gave them the Maltese archipelago in return, among other things, for the annual presentation of a falcon to his viceroy of Sicily. The superb leadership of the grand master Jean Parisot de La Valette prevented Süleyman the Magnificent from dislodging the Knights from Malta in 1565 in one of the most famous sieges in history, which ended in a Turkish disaster. What was left of the Turkish navy was permanently crippled in 1571 at the Battle of Lepanto by the combined fleets of several European powers that included the Knights of Malta. The Knights then proceeded to build a new Maltese capital, Valletta, named after La Vallette. In it they built great defense works and a hospital of grand dimensions that attracted many physically and mentally ill patients from outside Malta.
Thereafter the Knights continued as a territorial sovereign state in Malta but gradually gave up warfare and turned wholly to territorial administration and to medical care. In1798, however, their reign in Malta came to an end, when Napoleon on his way to Egypt occupied the island. The order's return to Malta was provided for in the Treaty of Amiens (1802) but eliminated by the Treaty of Paris (1814), which assigned Malta to Great Britain. In 1834 the Knights of Malta became permanently established in Rome. From 1805 they were ruled by lieutenants until Pope Leo XIII revived the grand mastership in 1879. A new constitution containing a more precise definition of both the religious and the sovereign status of the order was adopted in 1961, and a code was issued in 1966.
Although the order no longer exercises territorial rule, it issues passports, and its sovereign status is recognized by the Holy See and some other Roman Catholic states. Membership is confined to Roman Catholics, and the central organization is essentially aristocratic, being ruled chiefly by a primary class of “professed” knights of justice and chaplains who can prove the nobility of their four grand parents for two centuries.
Kálimnos
Mountainous Greek island in the Aegean Sea, part of the Dodecanese group, 42 square miles (111 square km) in area. The capital, Kálimnos (Pothia), located at the head of an inlet in the southeast, is the chief port and a prominent Aegean commercial centre with the bulk of the island's population. As in classical times, sponge fishing remains the chief industry, with the sponge fleet away to the North African coast for up to six months each year after Easter. Toward the centre of the island, the volcanic valley of Vathys, irrigated from springs, supports citrus, olives, figs, and vines. The island is the seat of a metropolitan bishop of the Greek Orthodox Church.
Believed to have been settled by a Dorian colony from Epidaurus in the Peloponnese, the island coined its own money and took part in the first and second Athenian leagues (5th and 4th centuries BC). As a Persian satrapy, it was conquered in 332 by the Macedonian forces of Alexander the Great and was later annexed by Rome to the province of Asia. Until AD 1310 it was occupied by Venetians, who then gave way to the Knights of Rhodes (the future Knights of Malta). In 1522 it was captured with the other islands of the Dodecanese by the Turks, and in 1912 it was occupied by Italy. The people of Kálimnos resisted Italianization, and during World War II many fled to Turkey. The necropolis of Damos and more than 100 ancient Greek inscriptions are among the antiquities found or excavated on the island. Pop. (1991 prelim.) island, 16,407.
Island of Rhodes
Rhodes, major city of the island of Rhodes and capital of the nomós (department) of Dhodhekánisos (in the Dodecanese islands), Greece. The largest urban centre on the island, Rhodes sits on its northeasternmost tip. In classical history, Rhodes was a maritime power and the site of the Colossus of Rhodes. Because of its influence on Mediterranean history as well as its preservation of Gothic and Ottoman structures, the city was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1988.
The historical fortunes of the city are linked intimately with those of the island of Rhodes. Under a modified democracy and an efficient executive, the city in antiquity prospered. Its standard of coinage was widely accepted, and its maritime law, the earliest known to have been codified, was widely quoted in the Mediterranean and was adopted by Augustus for the Roman Empire. Parts of the law are still quoted. About 294–282 BC the citizens commemorated their successful resistance to adetermined siege by Demetrius I Poliorcetes (305 BC) by erecting the famous Colossus of Rhodes, a bronze statue rising to some 100 feet(30 metres) or higher that was dedicated to the sun god Helios. About 225/226 BC the statue toppled during a severe earthquake that destroyed much of the island. It was not reerected because of a pronouncement by the Delphic oracle, but it was immortalized as one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Under the emperor Diocletian (reigned AD 284–305) the city was the capital of a Roman province. From the 16th to the 20th century Rhodes was controlled by the Ottoman Turks. A devastating powder magazine explosion ruined much of the town in 1856, killing hundreds of its citizens. Under Italian rule (1912–43) it was the administrative centre for the Dodecanese islands. The Germans occupied the island from 1943 to 1945, during which time several historic structures were damaged by Allied bombing. Rhodes and the other Dodecanese islands were subsequently returned to Greek sovereignty.
Behind the small-craft port of Mandrákion (Mandhráki), which is separated from the commercial harbour by the tiny Boubouli Peninsula, the city proper is divided into two distinctive parts. The “Old City,” enclosed by walls and a moat built by the Crusader Knights of Rhodes (Knights of Malta) in the 14th century, borders the commercial harbour to the west. The castle of the Crusader Knights is a notable tourist attraction. Among the Ottoman mosques are the Suleymaniye (mainly 19th century), with its brightly striped minaret, and the Rejep Pasha (1588). Works of art and historical artifacts are housed at the Medieval Exhibit (1994) of the Palace of the Grand Masters. The former hospital of the Knights of Rhodes is the city's archaeology museum, and their former cathedral now houses the Museum of Byzantine Art. The “New Town,” begun in 1912 by the Italians, extends north of the Old City to the very tip of the island and westward to the foot of Mount Smith, site of the ruined acropolis (2nd century BC). The New Town includes an open-air market, a national theatre, and the church of the Evangelismos (Annunciation), which was built in 1925 on the plan of the Church of St. John, destroyed in 1856.
The city and island are now a major tourist destination. Tourism, fishing, and government services are the most important sources of employment. Pop. (1981) 40,392; (1991 prelim.) 43,619.
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