Publications

A major chapter in the ‘Velimezis Icon Collection Project’ is the publication activity relating the Collection. To date the following works have been published:

Ι.The Catalogue Raisonné of the Collection

Βetween 1992 and 1996, the Professor of Byzantine Archaeology at the University of Ioannina, Nano Chatzidakis, studied the icons in the Velimezis Collection and prepared the extensive introduction and the detailed entries for the Catalogue Raisonné, titled Icons. The Velimezis Collection, which was published by the Benaki Museum in 1997 (ISBN: 960-8452-47-3) (for the full Catalogue Raisonné press here).

A few months earlier, in September 1996, at the VII Congress of Cretan Studies held in Heraklion, N. Chatzidakis had delivered the first scientific paper on a unique work –as research proved- in the Collection, ‘The Passion of Christ’, which she attributed, with documentation, to Domenikos Theotokopoulos. As Angelos Delivorrias wrote in the Preface to the Catalogue Raisonné, ‘… five years of intensive research passed until the moment of an extremely exciting discovery: the recognition of an early work by Domenikos Theotokopoulos‘. Professor Chatzidakis was then invited by Harvard University to Dumbarton Oaks, where she spoke about her discovery and the attribution of the icon to the early oeuvre of Domenikos Theotokopoulos. A series of invitations for the same reason followed, from international agencies and museums, in which the Collection was presented (1997-2010).

Translations of the Catalogue Raisonné were subsequently published in English, Spanish, German and Russian. All these publications were produced by the Benaki Museum:

Εικόνες της Συλλογής Βελιμέζη, Athens 1997 (ed. Loula Kypraiou). Republished: Athens 2002.
Icons. The Velimezis Collection, 1997 (transl. and ed. Alexandra Doumas). Republished: Athens 2008.
Iconos de la Coleccion Velimezis, 1999 (transl. and eds Prof. Alexis Eudald Solà, Albert Andrade Asorey, Josep Maria Bernal Rios, Dr Ernest Marcos Hierro).
Ikonen. Die Sammlung Velimezis, 2001 (transl. and ed. Hubertus von Gemmingen).
Иконы Coбрания Велимезиса, 2009 (transl. and eds Olga Alexandropoulou, Anna
Mikhailova).

II. The 22 catalogues of exhibitions of the Collection

The 22 catalogues of exhibitions of the Collection, numbering in all 3,600 pages and in 12 languages: English, French, German, Spanish and Catalan, Portuguese, Italian, Czech, Korean, Polish, Arabic, Russian. Translators and editors of the texts in the corresponding editions are: Aude Virey-Wallon, F-Meudon (Fribourg and Nice), Prof. Alexis Eudald Solà (Barcelona) Dr Ernest Marcos Hierro, Prof. Pedro Olalla (Toledo), Maria Vlachou, Maria Ferreira-Hidiroglou, Ad-verbum, Serviҫos de Traduҫão e Interpretaҫão Lda (Lisbon), Jasmine Pipart, Danièle Mouchot (Nice), Sotiris Messinis, Giulia Berardi, Christina Th. Philippakis, Nexa s.a.s., Thetis Xanthakou (Venice), Pavel Daneš, Philippos Kostomitsopoulos, Denis Kostomitsopoulos and Evi Tsekou -edit- (Prague), Ian Pearson, Thomas Müller, Brigitte Jäger (Frankfurt), Jo Ahn S.R. (Seoul), Micaela Chirif, Dr Ernest Marcos Hierro, Pedro Olalla (Lima), Dr Victoria Solomonidis FKC -edit-. (London), Katie Morton, Zacharias Karatsioumpanis, Konstantinos Kosmas, Brigitte Jäger, Thomas Müller, Birgit Hildebrand, Vassilis Kontopoulos (Vienna – Berlin) Zdzislaw Owczarek, Izabela Walek, Olga Jaros, Mirosław Piotr Kruk (Cracow), Publishing Department of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Arts Center, Dr Sherif Mohie Eldin, Dr Mostafa El Razzaz, Dr Ahmed Abdel Ghani (Alexandria), Elena Izbitser, Susan Eastmann (Saint Petersburg), Olga Alexandropoulou, Anna Mikhailova, Sophia Stephanidou, Susan Eastman (Moscow), Elizabeth Key Fowden (Sofia).

We thank them all, as well as, Alexandra Doumas, who has edited all English Texts of the above editions.

Catalogues of international exhibitions of the Velimezis Collection

III. Conservation works on the icons of the Collection

Οver four years, 1993-1996, conservation works were carried out on the icons of the Collection. Under the constant supervision and participation of Stergios Stassinopoulos, then head of the Benaki Museum Department of Conservation of Works of Art, and with the contribution of Lenia Pharmakalidou, Nikolaos Smyrnakis, Charis Grammatikos, Lena Vranopoulou, Alexandra Kalliga, Chrysa Vourvopoulou, Vassiliki Nikolopoulou, Katerina Kakousiou, Vassilis Broumas, Elisavet Nadali, Sophia Doulberi and Maria-Louisa Pasko, the necessary works were carried out. The results of these were published in Part II of the Catalogue Raisonné of the Collection (pp. 445-467).

The results of the conservation works were ‘recorded’ and led to the creation of an educational CD-ROM. Over the two-year period 1996-1997 a large team of scientists, under the guidance of Stergios Stassinopoulos and the masterly direction of Danai and Nikos Stassinopoulos of Parallax Design, prepared the CD-ROM Η Συντήρηση των εικόνων της Συλλογής Βελιμέζη, Benaki Museum 1998, ISBN: 960-8452-49-X. This was quickly followed by the English version The Conservation of Icons in the Velimezis Collection and was the first CD-ROM in the world to circulate on the subject of the conservation of artworks of the fifteenth-eighteenth century.

The venture was truly an important scientific success and was presented by our team at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London (1998) and Dumbarton Oaks of Harvard (1999).

IV. Studies
Studies and papers presented at colloquia, as well as publications in proceedings of scientific conferences and meetings, organized in the framework of the Collection’s international activities.

V. CD-ROMs and video productions
CD-ROMs and video productions occasioned by the exhibitions (press here) as well as the CD ‘Byzantine Hymns’ by the Lykourgos Angelopoulos Greek Byzantine Choir.

VI. Anthivola
Since 2007, the publishing programme of the Velimezis Collection includes also publications on the working drawings (anthivola) in the Collection:

– Αndromachi Katselaki – Maria Nanou, Anthivola, The Holy Cartoons from Chionades, The Makris-Margaritis Collection (English text included), Museum of Modern Greek Culture (ex. Museum of Greek Folk Art), Athens 2009. (for the full Catalogue press here)

– Publications on the Anthivola from The Velimezis Collections Exhibitions: Berlin, Anthivola. Malvorlagen für sakrale Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Pergamon-Museum, 2007. Cracow, Anthivola. Wzorniki Painting- patterns, Muzeum Narodowe W Krakowie, 2007. Sofia, The Holy Cartoons from Chioniades, Crypt of Saint Alexander Nevski Cathedral in Sofia, 2011.