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000007 Yannis Mitarakis, Meteora, 1960, oil on canvas, 67.5 × 84 cm

The wild landscape of Meteora occupied Mitarakis in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It became the third major theme of his late artistic production, alongside Santorini and Olive Trees. In the paintings of the Meteora series, the artist conceived the large rock formations and the monasteries built atop them as a pretext for the abstract depiction of nature—an approach he had already successfully applied in the landscape of Santorini. This particular composition captures a general view of the landscape. The left part is dominated by the contrast between brown and green fields, which schematically describe the rocky terrain with its sparse vegetation. In the right part of the composition stands a bare, ochre-yellow rock, atop which is built the Monastery of Varlaam. Mountain masses also rise impressively in the background like a barrier, leaving little space for the sky.