“I wanted to include sacred memories of the insuperable ancient Greek sculpture in this place. All the pieces of work placed here, can be provided to whoever is interested by the Reproduction Department of Classical Antiquities of the Archaeological Museum. They are not placed at random. There are also memories of my own youth, from the time I worked as an art restorer in that museum, conserving masterpieces of our cultural heritage (‘Lapithes and Lapithides’, ‘Threebodied demon’, ‘Hercules reception on Olympus’). I have proposed the foundation of this department, and supported it with two of my patents. Nobody bothered to reward me for my work, with the exception of some good reviews.
On the right hand side of this composition, we see the ‘Dying Warrior’ trying to slit his chest open to take a last breath to be able to communicate the message he is carrying. The ‘Archaic Daughter’ bridges entire periods with the mere hint of her finely made Ionic veil, a little over her feet. This veil will replace the heavier and more inflexible Dorian one in the oncoming period. In the center, a plain riddled photo of the Parthenon and a model in front, in combination with the small opening, lead the visitor’s eye, even in the form of a brief reference, to eternal teaching Beauty. The sepulchral ‘Stele of Igisus’ and the internal respect it breathes is the bridge between the world of the living and the world of the dead; the dead lady Igiso is inspecting some of her jewels she used to enjoy while she was alive, having the “piksida” (jewel box) as a connecting link; that is, the Matter, the box with valuable objects to the dead, which also serve as funeral gifts. She is being given the box by her living maid. The ‘Attendant Aesculapius’ reminds us of the respect our ancestors showed to one of the most important sciences of the world and the respect to the attendant (as individual); Aesculapius himself was made demigod. As for thinking Athena, ‘Pensive Athena’ reminds us that even the most powerful Goddess was gifted with the healthiest human traits. These reproductions were first made of gypsum poured in special molds I made myself. Not an easy task since on some of them the original coloring was still evident, which meant that a copy made using the conventional –at the time– materials would ruin the original. The second hard task was the careful coating of a special patina giving the impression of a marble surface gently aged by time. The two patents I secured had to do with these stages of my work.
These pieces of work speak for themselves. They keep standing and ‘breathing’ for over 2,500 years and constitute part of the immortal Greek Art and the heavy (or should I say precious) Greek Heritage. This land lit and taught humanity all kinds of art, science and philosophy for centuries. A column, a statue, the blue of the sky and the sea of this Museum called Greece offers beauty to all.”