Panagiotis Doxaras

Panagiotis Doxaras (* 1662 in Mani, † 1729 in Corfu, and Panayotis or Panayiotis Doxaras ) was a major Greek painter and founder of the school of painting known as the Ionian islands.

In 1664 his family settled on the island of Zakynthos. On the island, he took lessons at a young age in icon painting at Leo Moskos. In 1694 he became a soldier in the Venetian army and fought against the Ottomans in Chios. Five years later, he left the army, where he was appointed by the Venetians for his military merits and knighted in 1721, received land on the island of Leucas.

From 1699 to 1704 he studied painting in Venice. After studying in Italy, he spent the rest of his life on the islands of Zakynthos and Corfu Leukas.

The works of Doxaras mark a turning point of Greek painting is of the Byzantine hagiographic paintings, to art of the Renaissance. Panagiotis Doxaras was an admirer of Italian painters, and particularly by Leonardo da Vinci, whose work " Trattato della pittura " he translated into Greek. In 1726 he wrote a own work, a painter book entitled " About the Painting " ( Peri Zographias ), but that only much later, was published ( in German translation in 2004 ), in 1871.

Doxaras works deal mainly with religious topics. But he was also one of the first Greek portraitist. His most famous portrait is that of Count von der Schulenburg, the defender of Corfu. Doxaras also painted the ceiling of the church of Saint Spyridon in Corfu and equipped them with icons. The ceiling painting, his main work, however, was destroyed by moisture and had mid-19th century to paint over.