Athens as Urban Landscape in the Painting of the First Decades of the 20th Century

Abstract

Ιn this article I shall examine the history of representation of Athens as a capital of the modern Greek state during the first decades of the 20th century in order to show the ideological priorities of society at the time, the aesthetic preferences of the public as well as the artistic idiom of painters as manifested in the paintings themselves. It will also be revealed that due to the general political climate in Greek society, its delayed urbanisation and the need for strengthening and elevating national pride and identity after the Asia Minor catastrophe in 1922, Athens as an urban landscape is not to be found in the artists’ purposes and priorities.