Maria Filemonos, [c. 1859]

“Maria Filemonos” is a typical example of a bust rendered with particular care where female grace and elegance is stressed. In keeping with neoclassicist models, the young woman is rendered with delicate and idealized characteristics and a fixed look, intensified by the rendering of the eyes without pupil or iris, but the soft framing of the face, the slight turning of the head left and the faint contraction of the lips meant the formal and lifeless rendering these works are usually prone to, was thus avoided. The hair, carefully done, is parted down the middle and decorated with a delicate diadem, while in back it ends in a loose braid. The shoulders are left bare, revealing the upper chest and the soft rise and fall of the surface, while the bosom is discreetly noted under the drapery of the dress.

The work was executed jointly by Georgios and Lazaros Fytalis. In 1859 it was presented in plaster at the Olympia Exhibition in Athens and in 1862 in marble at the International Exhibition of London.