Σταύρωση

000596 Nikos Yialouris, Crucifixion, n.d., Indian ink on paper, 51.5 × 44 cm

Yialouris painted a Crucifixion closely aligned with Byzantine art in 1959. He returned to the subject in 1970 and once again in the early 1990s. The reason he chose this theme is not clear, nor did he ever offer definitive explanations. However, the treatment of Christ’s body shows similarities with other series such as ‟The Angels” or ‟We Are the Statues”. In this particular drawing, a mutilated body is depicted—headless, missing its shins (the legs are severed below the knees, and the bones are visible), while the right arm is absent. The identity of the dead figure, however, is not in doubt, as the inscription INBI [in Greek. In Latin: INRI = Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum, i.e. Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews] is placed at the top of the cross. A ladder appears at the left edge of the scene, linking the composition to the post-Byzantine iconography of the ascent to the cross—a motif symbolizing Christ’s conscious act of sacrifice. The drawing, consistent with Yialouris’s mature graphic style, is marked by an expressionist mood, the distortion of the body, and the rendering of pain—connecting the Greek artist with similar artistic expressions from twentieth-century Europe (especially that of the English painter Francis Bacon), where the God-man is not viewed as a divine figure but as an allegory of the tormented mortal.