SPRING SEMESTER
ΕΘ-Δ4 Art Theory and Criticism
Instructor: Konstantinos Ioannidis (Associate Professor, Art Theory and History Department)
Course description
This lecture series offers an introductory exploration of the fields of art theory and art criticism. It begins by seeking to define these concepts clearly, distinguishing them from similar terms. Fundamental ideas that have shaped – and continue to shape – our perception and evaluation of the visual arts are examined from a historical perspective. At the same time, where appropriate, connections between different historical periods will be drawn in order to deepen the understanding of key concepts. While the course focuses primarily on developments from the 18th century onward, it also includes a necessary retrospective on the prehistory of discourse on the arts prior to the formal institutionalisation of art history and art criticism as academic disciplines.
ΕΘ-ΔΑΝΦΙΤΑΕ624 Special Topics in English Art Terminology: Mapping the Cultural Field II
Instructor: Maria Vara (Laboratory Teaching Staff, Art Theory and History Department)
Course description
This course focuses on familiarising students with the specialised use of English art terminology, developing both oral and written communication skills within a defined thematic and lexical framework. Instruction is delivered through communicative activities situated within the cultural field. Emphasis is placed on the contemporary art scene and the work of established artists featured in major international exhibitions (such as the Athens Biennale, the Thessaloniki Biennale, and the Venice Biennale). The course also examines recent social, political, and economic developments in relation to artistic production through a combination of pedagogical activities and site visits to museums, cultural centers, art galleries, and other relevant locations in Athens, including the Attiko Metro.
ΕΘ-Β1 History of Early Modern Art I: Renaissance and Baroque
Instructor: Nafsika Litsardopoulou (Assistant Professor, Art Theory and History Department)
Course description
The course focuses primarily on Renaissance visual production in the Italian peninsula from the 14th to the 16th century, while also presenting selected artworks from other European countries, such as France, Germany, and the Netherlands. Central topics include the stylistic diversity that emerged across this extended period, the differences among prominent Italian artistic centres (e.g., Rome, Florence, Siena, Venice), and the relationship between artistic production and major patrons of the time (e.g., the Medici, the Popes). The classical dictum ut pictura poesis is examined through the study of specific artworks and iconographic ensembles in dialogue with literary texts, symbolic structures, and theoretical writings on art. The final part of the course introduces students to 17th-century European art, the Baroque, European art from approximately 1700 to 1770, the Rococo period.
Romanesque Art
Instructor: Kalliroi Linardou (Assistant Professor, Art Theory and History Department)
Course description
This course offers an overview of developments in Western European medieval art during the 11th and 12th centuries. The Romanesque stylistic idiom dominated for approximately two centuries and, despite its regional variations and adaptations, constitutes a distinct period in the history of Western medieval art. The course will examine the principal characteristics of ecclesiastical architecture, the art and culture of major pilgrimage centres, developments in monumental painting and the decorative arts, as well as Romanesque sculpture, including both architectural sculpture and freestanding devotional objects. These artistic phenomena will be studied in close relation to the broader social and historical transformations that marked the period.
Course offered by the Department of Visual Arts (6th Semester)
ΕΤΥ2 Science – Technology of Materials II
Instructor: Charalambos Retsos (Laboratory Teaching Staff, Department of Visual Arts)
KALLIRROE (KELLY) LINARDOU / Assistant Professor
Kallirroe Linardou is an Assistant Professor in the History of Byzantine and Medieval Art, teaching as a faculty member in the Department of Theory & History of Art, Athens School of Fine Arts, since 2010. She is a graduate of the Department of History & Archeology, University of Ioannina (1993). Her postgraduate and doctoral studies were undertaken in Great Britain: MA in Late Antique and Byzantine Studies, King’s College, London (2000), and Ph.D. in Byzantine Art, Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity, Centre of Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham, Great Britain (2004). During her postgraduate studies and beyond she has been a recipient of the following scholarships and fellowships: Foundation of State Scholarships (IKY); A.G. Leventis Foundation; Arts and Humanities Research Board (A.H.R.B.) of the British Academy; Stanley J. Seeger Center of Hellenic Studies, University of Princeton. Earlier in her career she has been employed under contract as a field archeologist by the Greek Ministry of Culture. Her specialty is byzantine illustrated manuscripts and she has published variously on this topic; she is currently preparing an anthology of papers dedicated to Byzantine illustrated manuscripts (in Greek).
- Leslie Brubaker and Kallirroe Linardou, eds, Eat, Drink, and Be Merry (Luke 12:19) – Food and Wine in Byzantium, Papers of the 37th Annual Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, in Honour of Professor Α.A.M. Bryer (Aldershot, 2007)
- ‘The Kokkinobaphos manuscripts revisited: the internal evidence of the books’, Scriptorium, 61/2 (2007), 384-407
- ‘New visions of old meanings: Parisinus Graecus 135 and some anti-Latin visual implications’, in Angeliki Lymberopoulou, ed., Images of the byzantine world. Visions, messages and meanings. Studies presented to Leslie Brubaker (Aldershot, 2011), 169-184
- ‘An Alternative to Illustration. Marginalia figuratα in codex Coislin 88 of the Bibliothèque nationale”, Δελτίον της Χριστιανικής Αρχαιολογικής Εταιρείας 34 (2013), 285-300
- ‘Imperial impersonations. Disguised portraits of a Komnenian prince and his father’, in A. Bucossi and A. Rodriguez Suarez (eds), John II Komnenos Emperor of Byzantium: In the Shadow of Father and Son (London, 2016), 155-182
- ‘Mirroring the Face of God. The Challenge of the “Invisible Face” and the Metropolitan Crucifixion ivory’, in L. Diamantopoulou and M. Gerolemou, eds, Mirrors and Mirroring from Antiquity to the Early Modern Period (London, 2020), 177-187
Email: klinardou@asfa.gr
Asfa Academia: Kelly (Kallirroe) Linardou (asfa.academia.edu)
Google Scholar: Kallirroe (Kelly) Linardou
Research Gate: Kallirroe Linardou (researchgate.net)
KOSTAS IOANNIDIS / Associate Professor
Kostas Ioannidis is Associate Professor of Theory and Criticism at the Athens School of Fine Arts. His essays have appeared in numerous scholarly volumes and journals. His publications include the books Contemporary Greek Photography (Σύγχρονη Ελληνική Φωτογραφία, futura & Thessaloniki Museum of Phtography, 2008) and Three at Sea (Τρεις εν Πλω, MIET, 2018) a book he co-authored with Emmanouela Kantzia. More recently he published the book An “exquisitely hybrid art”: poetics of photography in the late 19th and early 20th century (Μια “Υπερόχως Νόθος Τέχνη”: Ποιητικές της Φωτογραφίας. Τέλη 19ου- αρχές 20ού αιώνα, futura, 2019) with which he was awarded the State Award for Essay and Criticism (2020). As a Fulbright Scholar (2013) he has done research in the MoMA (NYC) and in the Rockefeller Archive Centre archives on the issue of Greek-USA cultural relationship during the Cold War. Over the past three years he has been conducting research on a body of photographs of prisoners held in the Smyrna Central Prison (1919-1922), a research he continued as a Fellow of the Clark Art Institute (USA) during the summer 2022. Ioannidis is the principal investigator of the research programme TECHNO-LOGIA and a member of the General Assembly of HFRI (Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation).
Email: kioannidis@asfa.gr
MARIA VARA / Special Teaching Staff
Maria Vara is Special Teaching Staff at the Department of Theory and History of Art, Athens School of Fine Arts. She holds an MA from the University of East Anglia (Norwich, UK) and a PhD ̶ funded by the Greek State Scholarships Foundation ̶ from the School of English, Aristotle University (Thessaloniki, Greece). She has been secretary of the Hellenic Association for the Study of English (HASE, www.enl.auth.gr/hase/), 2014-2020. Her publications include chapters in The Reception of Jane Austen in Europe (Continuum, 2007), Metafiction and Metahistory in Contemporary Women’s Writing (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), Le Gothic (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), Rewriting/Reprising: Plural Intertextualities (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009), The Letter of the Law: Literature, Justice and the Other (Peter Lang, 2013), The Reception of Charles Dickens in Europe (Bloomsbury Academic, 2013), Liminal Dickens (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016) and Ruins in the Literary and Cultural Imagination (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019). Her most recent publication (2022) is ‘OMG JANE AUSTEN’: Austen and Memes in the Post-#MeToo Era (https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/11/5/112).
Email : mvara@asfa.gr
NAFSIKA-SOTIRIA LITSARDOPOULOU / Assistant Professor
Nafsika Litsardopoulou is Assistant Professor (tenured) at the Department of Theory and History of Art of the Athens School of Fine Arts.
She teaches Early Modern Art History from the Renaissance through the 17th century. Her field of expertise is the Flemish and Dutch theory and history of painting of the 17th century. Her special interests include the relationship of images to primary textual sources, theoretical and critical approaches, patronage and market issues, the question of national identities, the relationship between certain artistic genres and their ideological and social period contexts.
Her recent publications include “Karel van Mander. Σχετικά με την τοπιογραφία (1604)” (introduction, transl, comments). Ιστορία της Τέχνης, τεύχος 11 (Φθινόπωρο 2022), pp. 152-161, «Εικόνα χωρίς λόγο; Η περίπτωση της ιστορικής φωτογραφίας του Erwin Olaf», in Νίκος Ερηνάκης, Φανή Παραφόρου (ed.), Εικόνα/Λόγος. Ερευνητικά ζητήματα και σύγχρονες προσεγγίσεις. Αθήνα, Εκδόσεις Στιγμός, 2022, pp. 177-199, “Peter Paul Rubens De Imitatione Statuarum” (introduction, transl, comments). Ιστορία της Τέχνης, τεύχος 10 (Φθινόπωρο 2021), pp. 134-136, “The Animal as Agent of the Sublime in Rembrandt’s Narratives of Ovid’s Metamorphoses”, Philosophia (Springer) 2021, DOI 10.1007/s11406-021-00372-0. She is the author of the monographs Η Ζωγραφική Παραγωγή των Κάτω Χωρών κατά τον 17ο αιώνα. Athens, I. Sideris Publications, 2015, Τα Συναισθήματα και το Υψηλό. Η αντίληψη της έκφρασής τους στην ιστορική ζωγραφική του Rembrandt. Εκδόσεις Ευρασία, 2019, The Emotions and the Sublime in Rembrandt’s History Painting. Expression and Perception. Athens, I. Sideris Publications, 2021.
Email: nlitsardopoulou@asfa.gr
Research Gate: Nafsika Litsardopoulou (researchgate.net)
HARIS RETSOS / Laboratory Teaching Staff
Dr. Haris Retsos has Scientific Interest on the topics of Art Materials and Properties, Environmental Sustainability in Art Exhibitions, Sustainable Development, Surface and Interfacial Properties, Thin Films, Responsive Materials, Polymer Adhesion, Aging and fracture of Organic Materials, Polymer Mixture, Nanocomposites, etc.
He has joined ASFA’s Faculty Personnel at 2017 and since then he teaches, in two semesters, the courses on Science and Technology of Materials for Artists.
He has PhD, MSc and Bc from the Physics Dept. of the University of Crete, Greece.
Since he has joined ASFA, he has gained extensive experience in managing a diverse range of multidisciplinary, cross-sectoral, and transnational large-scale projects in complex environments, such as:
· Coordinator and Strategic Expert, “Support of the ASFA Strategic Committee”, NSRF (ESPA) 2014-2020,
· Coordinator and Work Group Member, “Digital transformation and enhancement of the Athens School of Fine Arts’ Cultural Reserve, 1837- 2021”, NSRF (ESPA) 2014-2020,
· Coordinator and STEAM Expert, “Didactic of Fresco for Children / The Greek Painting Tradition in Secondary Education Context”, Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation.
· Coordinator and STEAM Expert, “Conservation, Restoration, Sustainability and Promotion of the ASFA Art Collection”, EPA 2021-2024 Ministry of Education Development Funds.
· Scientific Responsible, “Support actions for the Management Structure of the Athens School of Fine Arts, ELKE”, ESPA 2014-2020.
· Coordinator and Work Group Member,“Art Exhibition of ASFA’s Collection for the τα 60 years of the European Social Fund”,
o “Art Exhibition of ASFA’s Collection at the Ministry of Financial Development for the 30 years of Cohesion Policies in EU”,
o “Art Exhibition of ASFA’s Collection in Ministry of Migration & Asylum – Art without Borders”,
o “Art Exhibition of ASFA’s Collection in Independent Authority of Public Income”. of Public Income”.
His academic research career is on the topic of theoretical and experimental issues of Polymer Science and Engineering, and he has worked as researcher at the:
- Department of Materials, University of California Santa Barbara, CA, USA,
- Institut de Biologie Structurale, Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique (Grenoble, France),
- Ecole Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles, (Paris, France) and
- Department of Material Science & Engineering, Cornell University (Ithaca, NY, USA).
He has also an extensive administrative work experience in Greece as:
- Executive Scientific Staff at National Exams Organization – Independent Authority, Ministry of Education
- Project Manager at Managing Authority – National Strategic Reference Framework, Ministry of Education
- Administrative Associate Personnel on Management of Human Resources for Public Sector Secondary Education at Ministry of Education,while he has participated in National Scientific Committees and Work Groups as:
o Coordinator of the working group of Ministry of Education on the topic of “Analysis and Documentation of quantitative and qualitative indices in Greek Education”,
o Coordinator of working group and National Expert at the Committee of Ministry of Education at the topic of “Economic Analysis of the Greek Educational System”,
o Expert at the Committee of Ministry of Education on the topic of “Analysis and Policy Making of Structural Funds Direction for ESPA 2021-2027 on the topics of Greek Ministry of Education”.
He has also an extensive experience in managing a wide range of multidisciplinary, cross-sectorial, transnational large projects in a complex environment as:
· Coordinator and Strategic Expert, “Support of the ASFA Strategic Committee”, NSRF (ESPA) 2014-2020,
· Coordinator and Work Group Member, “Digital transformation and enhancement of the Athens School of Fine Arts’ Cultural Reserve, 1837- 2021”, NSRF (ESPA) 2014-2020,
· Coordinator and STEAM Expert, “Didactic of Fresco for Children / The Greek Painting Tradition in Secondary Education Context”, Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation.
· Coordinator and STEAM Expert, “Conservation, Restoration, Sustainability and Promotion of the ASFA Art Collection”, EPA 2021-2024 Ministry of Education Development Funds.
· Scientific Responsible, “Support actions for the Management Structure of the Athens School of Fine Arts, ELKE”, ESPA 2014-2020.
· Coordinator and Work Group Member,“Art Exhibition of ASFA’s Collection for the τα 60 years of the European Social Fund”,
o “Art Exhibition of ASFA’s Collection at the Ministry of Financial Development for the 30 years of Cohesion Policies in EU”,
o “Art Exhibition of ASFA’s Collection in Ministry of Migration & Asylum – Art without Borders”,
o “Art Exhibition of ASFA’s Collection in Independent Authority of Public Income”. of Public Income”.
He has published 23 scientific articles while he has 32 participations in International Scientific Conferences.