01 Work, The Art of War, Theophilos Hatzimihail's Alexander the Great killing Mithridates, with footnotes

Theofilos Hadjimichael (Greek, 1871-1934)

The battle of Alexander the great with Mithridates/The Invasion of Alexander the Great in Persia, c. 

Natural pigments on cardboard

70 x 101 cm.

Private collection

Sold for £90,000 on 16 November 2016

Mighty, regal and handsome as an Olympian god, his golden armour flashing lightning, Alexander the Great, riding Bucephalus, his beloved black stallion and one of antiquity's most famous horses, plunges his lance in the body of Mithridatis, a high ranking Persian and son-in-law of king Darius III, at the famous Battle of the Granicus River in 334 BC. 

Alexander is clad in the attire of a Roman emperor, including a short blue tunic, gold breastplate and helmet and crimson red cloak. As noted by Y. Tsarouchis, "this outfit known from the folk woodcuts of Erotocritos and the Roman soldiers in 19th c. post-Byzantine icons, is identical to Italian opera costumes, as designed by famed set designers such as Torelli and long before them by such greats as Botticelli and Raphael, when they painted military saints or archangels." More on this work

Theophilos Chatzimichail (born c. 1870, Vareia, near Mytilene, island of Lesbos; died in Vareia, Greece, 24 March 1934), known simply as Theophilos, was a Greek folk painter and major contributor in modern Greek art. The main subject of his works are Greek characters and the illustration of Greek traditional folklore and history.

His life was very hard, partially because people made fun of him since he often wore the fustanella in public. At the age of 18 he abandoned his home and family and worked as a gate-keeper at the Greek consulate in Smyrna.

He stayed in Smyrna for a few years before he settled in the city of Volos in about 1897, searching for occasional work and painting in houses and shops of the area. Many of his murals exist today. His protector during that period was the landholder Giannis Kontos, for whom he did many works. As well as painting, he was also involved in organizing popular theatrical acts for national ceremonies, and in the carnival period he had a major role, sometimes dressing as Alexander the Great, with pupils in Macedonian phalanx formation, and sometimes as a hero of the Greek Revolution, with gear and costumes made by himself.

In 1927 he returned to Mytilene. 

In Mytilene, despite the mockery of the people, he continued to draw, painting many murals in villages for little payment, usually for a plate of food and a cup of wine. Many of his works of this period have been lost, either due to natural aging or from damage by the owners.

The renowned art critic and publisher Stratis Eletheriadis (Tériade), who lived in Paris, discovered Theophilos and brought him a great deal of recognition and also international publicity, though posthumous.

Theophilos died in March 1934, on the eve of the Annunciation, perhaps from food poisoning. In 1961, his works were exhibited in the Louvre as a sample of a genuine folk painter of Greece. In 1965, Tériade donated 86 painted works on textile to the Municipality of Lesvos, along with a building that became the Theophilos Museum in Vareia, Lesbos. More on Theophilos Chatzimichail

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