Βασίλισσα της φύσης με άσπρο πουλι, λαγό και ένα κοκκοράκι

000157 Gesthimani Seferopoulou, Queen of Nature with a White Bird, a Rabbit and a Rooster, 1998, tempera on wood, 89 × 48 εκ.

A young girl, in a blue dress decorated with geometric patterns and flowers, occupies most of the painting's surface, staring intently at the viewer. Around her are animals (a bird, a snake, a rabbit and a rooster), a branch rests on her left shoulder, while a gold crown ‟sits” on her head. The girl resembles the ancient Potnia Theron, the oriental goddess of animals and hunting, who was later identified in Ancient Greece as the goddess Artemis. Gethsemane certainly does not aim to glorify hunting or the dominance of the divine over nature, but rather to highlight Nature through an allegorical, symbolic iconography. Inspired by folk tales and children's paintings, the artist is more interested in an ecological message, highlighting the figure of a woman as a life-giving force. Gethsemane studied painting at major institutions in the United States and then at the Athens School of Fine Arts, under Nikos Kessanlis and Takis Patraskidis. However, her painting deliberately moves in the realm of outsider art and children's painting: with her main features of naivety, simplification, clean contours and flat, bright, and intense colours, Gethsemane creates joyful, dreamlike compositions. Beyond them, however, and beneath a simple, allegorical language, there are hidden symbolisms that the viewer is challenged to discover.