Georgios Bonanos

           Georgios Bonanos                                          ΓΙΩΡΓΙΟΣ ΜΠΟΝΑΝΟΣ

          Born 1863 in Cephalonia                               Died 1940 in Athens

Georgios Bonanos was a prolific artist, producing many hundreds of works over the course of his life. Luckily for us, among this vast output are the monuments he created (over 25 by our count) for graves in the First Cemetery of Athens. Some of them are masterpieces; all are distinctive and the work of a sculptor at the top of his form. Many were commissioned by his fellow Cephalonians. He was proud of his island origin and always signed his works Created by Georgios Bonanos, Cephalonian (Γ. Μπονάνος Κεφαλλήν εποιεί).

His Life

Bonanos was born near Lixouri and moved with his family to Athens at the age of 10. There he was immediately captivated by the richness of the capital’s classical heritage and decided he wanted to become a sculptor. From 1874 to 1883, he studied at the School of Arts under Leonidas Drosis while at the same time, apprenticing at the studio of Demitris Filippotis. At the Filippotis studio, he produced his first work, a piece entitled Narcissus, that so captured the fancy of a certain Mr Hadzopoulos, a visiting Greek from Manchester, that he purchased it for 1200 Francs, a tidy sum that made it possible for him to go abroad and continue his studies.

Like many of the ambitious sculptors of his era, he chose Rome and the Royal Institute of Belle Arts (Regio Istituto di Belle Arti)   formerly the San Luca Academy. There he studied under Antonio Allegretti and Girolamo Masini and at some point during his studies, was awarded first prize for a statue of a nude. He stayed in Italy for five years.

Upon returning to Athens he worked for a time in the studio of Leonidas Drosis, married Sophia Vampa, and in 1900 moved his studio to Ambelokipi – today in the center of Athens, but then out in the countryside. He and Sophia produced 10 children and apparently led a quiet life surrounded by a small group of friends. Painter and fellow Cefalonion  Spiros Vikatos was one of them. 

This rather provocative work entitled “Nana the Huntress” (after Zola;s heroine) is in the National Sculpture Gallery in Athens and was apparently executed circa 1898. I was presented in bronze in the Paris International Exhibition in 1900.

According to Bonanos expert, Theodora Markatou, being away from the city center did not detach him from the art scene of his day. He belonged to several art organizations and was for a time the president of the Brotherhood of Marble Studio Owners. 

In 1911, he accepted a position at the School of the Fine Arts. He immediately wrote to the Ministry of Education and to the director of the School, Georgos Iakovidis, (Γ. Ιακωβήδη) with a long list of ambitious proposals and suggestions for widespread changes at the school. His aim was to raise the school's standard – as so many European Schools of Fine Arts had already done, and to reorient the school by stressing Greek art.  To his disappointment, not one of his suggestions was accepted. Apparently many found his forthright personality and unyielding nature offensive. As a result, he resigned. He was offered another position but resigned from that too.  Politics and diplomacy were not his strong points.  Some put it down to the famous Cephallonian  reputation for idiosyncrasy.

His artistic ideals remained consistent during his lifetime.  He wrote, I believe in a Hellenic art which was born in the Greek nation and is for the Greek nation. For him, the Byzantine era was an aesthetic interruption. His hope was for art which stemmed from Ancient Greece but did not copy it. (1)

Bonanos never lacked ideas for the many orders which came his way from both inside and outside of Greece. He created several monuments of Greek heroes for town squares, busts of prominent people, and many funeral monuments. 

 

The Greek revolutionary hero Andreas Miaoulis in the town square of Syros, 1899. 

  He worked constantly up until the end of his life and participated in many exhibitions at home and abroad. Apparently he could be a difficult man to work for but was also generous and ready to help an employee or apprentice in need.

His Works in the First Cemetery

Many of his works in the cemetery follow the funeral aesthetic of his era and he did, of course, have to consider the wishes of his clients and the amount of money they were prepared to spend. Still, even here, there is a richness and depth of imaginative vision that sets his work apart. They are remarkably varied in tone and style and are spread out over many sections of the cemetery.

The memorial of the Cephalonian musician Georgos Lambiris (1890) is a personal favorite. Section 4, Number 426

The tomb of financial titan Panagis Charokopos (1915) was meant to be imposing and it is.  Charokopos, in heroic mode, looks ready to stride right out of the frame. Section 4, Number 561

 Charokopos (Χαροκόπος) was a fellow Cephalonian who became very rich indeed in the wheat business, acquiring vast estates in Romania and Thessaly which he then rented out. This is the largest Bonanos work in the cemetery.

The grave of Stella Stamboltzi (Στέλλα Σταμπολτζή) (1917).  Bonanos’ likeness of her is one of the six ‘sleeping ladies’ currently in the cemetery.  Section 4, Number 592

The tomb of  the Anastasios Livieratos Section 7, Number 41

This monument is worth a close look from every angle. It is elaborate in the extreme, yet somehow streamlined. The female figure is the ‘soul’ personified – a very traditional funeral motif.  It is an interesting portrayal. The face seems bland, and yet the pose a tad provocative although the figure is in classical garb. The ‘butterfly wings’ make her seem almost whimsical. She is not the only lady in the cemetery with butterfly wings. The Liveriatos family were also from Cephalonia. This is one of the most popular sculptures in the cemetery.

Constantinos Kondos (Κωνσταντίνος Κόντος) (1917) Section 7, Number 615

Rose Economou (Τριανταφυλλιά Οικονόμου) (1917) Section 9, Number 40

Konstantinos Varkas (Κωνσταντίνος Βάρκας)  (1920)

Section 5, Number 125A

Family tomb of  Antonios Kimoulakis (Αντωνίου Κιμουλάκη) (1908)

Section 7, Number 116

Georgios Papaioannou (Γεώργιος Παπαιωάννου) (1927)

Section 5, Number 710 

Notice what appears to be a halo surrounding his head, almost like a saint’s. Bonanos was fond of this motif and it appears several times in his works in the cemetery, including his own grave precinct.

The Evangelatos Family (Οικογένεια Ευαγγελάτου) (1915). This is not in character with his other works: strange… Section 5, Number 510 Τμήμα 5/510

Pavlos Kalligas (Παύλος  Καλλιγάς) (1896) Section 2, Number 41 The suitable sombre bust of yet another Cephanonian. Pavlos Kalligas was a lawyer, economist, historian and politician who served under many different governments and was also head of the National Bank of Greece.

Ioannis Bounas (Ιωάννης Μπούνας) (1906)

Section 4, Number 243

N. Papamichalopoulos (Ν. Παπαμιχαλόπουλος) (sometime after 1888) Section 4, Number 511

Basilios Spiliopoulos (Βασίλειος Σπηλιόπουλος) (1913)

Section 6, Number 147

Chryssoula Rizopoulou (Χρυσούλα Ριζοπούλου) (1927)

Section 7, Number 121

Pan. Michaloliakos (Παν. Μιχαλολιάκος) (1900)

Section 7, Number 278

GERMAIN HERNRICHSEN, councilor of state of the Russian empire (after 1901)

Section 7, Number 306

Smaragda Diovinoti (Σμαράγδα Δυοβηνιώτη) date?

Section 4. Number 141

Krispi- Zachariadi, Economou (Κρίσπι- Ζαχαριάδη- Οικονόμου) (1926)

Section 8, Number 236

Beside the above tomb (between 8/236 and 8/237) we found another Bonanos gem lying on its side and quite abandoned… Someone later placed it upright for a photo which appears under the label of  https://glypto.wordpress.com/)  and now it has disappeared entirely- we hope to the Athens Sculpture Museum.

Antonios Theofilatos (Αντώνιος Θεοφίλατος)  (1919)

Section 8, Number 151

Aristidis Vampas, Bonanos’ father-in-law. (Αριστείδης Βάμπας) (1919) Section 8, number 175

The Family Grave of Georgios Bonanos

Section 7, Number 332

The Map

 

Footnotes

(1) («Πιστεύω εις μιαν τέχνην Ελληνικήν γεννηθείσαν εκ του έθνους του  Ελληνικού και πάλιν ερχομένην  δια του έθνους του Ελληνικού».) 

Source: Alas, only in Greek.

Χάρη στην διατριβή της  Θεοδώρας Φ. Μαρκάτου εντοπίσαμε τα περισσότερα  έργα του Γ. Μπονάνου στο Πρώτο Νεκροταφείο Αθηνών. Θεοδώρα Φ. Μαρκάτου: Η ζωή και το έργο του Γεώργιου Μπονάνου (http://thesis.ekt.gr/thesisBookReader/id/2085#page/26/mode/1up