No. 15. View from the Castle Hill, looking towards Monte Skopó – Zante.

Title

No. 15. View from the Castle Hill, looking towards Monte Skopó – Zante.

Description

View from Monte Skopó to the city of Zakynthos on the island of the same name (Italian Zante). Large olive trees in the foreground. From Views in the Seven Ionian Islands, by Edward Lear. Lithography, published in 1863 by the Artist, Oldham/London, Hugh Broadbent (1863/1979). I

ca. 1863

Artist

Lear (1812-1888)

Edward Lear ( 1812- 1888) was an English artist, illustrator, musician, author and poet, now known mostly for his literary nonsense in poetry and prose and especially his limericks, a form he popularised. His principal areas of work as an artist were threefold: as a draughtsman employed to illustrate birds and animals; making coloured drawings during his journeys, which he reworked later, sometimes as plates for his travel books; as a (minor) illustrator of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poems. As an author, he is known principally for his popular nonsense collections of poems, songs, short stories, botanical drawings, recipes and alphabets. He also composed and published twelve musical settings of Tennyson's poetry. In 1842 Lear began a journey into the Italian peninsula, travelling through the Lazio, Rome, Abruzzo, Molise, Apulia, Basilicata, Calabria, and Sicily. In personal notes, together with drawings, Lear gathered his impressions on the Italian way of life, folk traditions, and the beauty of the ancient monuments.In 1848 he journeyed to Greek lands for the first time. He enthusiastically aimed to depict the authentic physiognomy of the country. He bequeathed us hundreds of Greek landscapes painted in his unique style, and equally impressive, thoroughly detailed diaries and letters on his life in Greece. In Corfu, Edward Lear hired Giorgos Kokkalis as his servant. Kokkalis was Lear’s personal assistant and travel companion for the next thirty years. Lear learned Greek and was acquainted with the British circles of the Ionian islands, albeit only for professional reasons.

Historical Description

The ancient Greek poet Homer mentioned Zakynthos in the Iliad and the Odyssey, stating that its first inhabitants were the son of King Dardanos of Arcadia, called Zakynthos, and his men. The Ionian Islands are an archipelago in the Ionian Sea that stretches from the Greek west coast of Albania in the north to the Peloponnese in the south. These include Corfu, Paxos, Lefkada, Ithaca, Kefalonia and Zakynthos, Kythira (together with Andikythira). The Ionian Islands also include some coastal islands in the south of the Peloponnese. Corfu came only in 734 BC Chr. An. BC in Greek culture. In contrast, Lefkada, Ithaca, Kefalonia and Zakynthos were already an essential part of early Greek Mycenaean culture. They later formed the western border of the Eastern Roman Empire. There was a lively cultural exchange during the Venetian rule. The Venetian language was spoken until the 1950s. The islands belonged to the Republic of Venice until 1797. After Napoleon Bonaparte conquered Venice, they came under French rule and in 1800, under the Russian-Ottoman protectorate, formed the Republic of the Ionian Islands, the first modern Greek state. From 1807 to 1814 they were again under Napoleonic rule, after the fall of Napoleon the British took power over what was originally the "United States of the Seven Islands". After a vote in parliament, the Ionian Islands joined the Greek state in 1864, which had been independent since 1830 and to which they have belonged since. Before being renamed Zakynthos, the island was said to have been called Hyrie. Zakynthos was then conquered by King Arkesios of Kefalonia, and then by Odysseus from Ithaca. Zakynthos participated in the Trojan War and is listed in the Homeric Catalogue of Ships which, if accurate, describes the geopolitical situation in early Greece at some time between the Late Bronze Age and the eighth century BCE. Philip V of Macedon seized Zakynthos in the early 3rd century BC when it was a member of the Aetolian League. In 211 BC, the Roman praetor Marcus Valerius Laevinus took the city of Zakynthos with the exception of the citadel. It was afterwards restored to Philip V of Macedon. The Roman general Marcus Fulvius Nobilior finally conquered Zakynthos in 191 BC for Rome. In the Mithridatic War, it was attacked by Archelaus, the general of Mithridates, but he was repulsed. After the fall of the Byzantine Empire, it was held by the Kingdom of Naples, the Ottoman Turks, the Republic of Venice, the French, Russians, British, Italians and Germans. In contrast to mainland Greece, the island of Zakynthos has been under western and central European rule for more than seven centuries. The Venetians who ruled the island for more than four centuries were nicknamed Zakynthos or Zante with the nickname "Fior di Levante" (Flower of the East).