CLINTON, MASS.- Icons of the Hellenic World is the first major exhibition at the Museum of Russian Icons that focuses exclusively on Greek and Byzantine iconography. On view June 22 – October 21, 2018, the exhibit delves deeply into the links and the continuity of Greek art and culture from Late Antiquity, through Byzantium, to the present. The Museum of Russian Icons is located at 230 Union Street in Clinton, MA.

Largely comprised of icons created after the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, Icons of the Hellenic World also features works from the Byzantine period (330AD-1453). The earliest object in the exhibition is a rare “Portrait of Man” from Fayum, Egypt, produced in the 1st or 2nd century CE, and painted in the encaustic technique, a wax painting method practiced in ancient Greece that probably originated in Egypt. Encaustic portraits are thought to be prototypes for painting the earliest Christian icons.

The exhibition features numerous icons and objects from the Cretan School as well as pieces from the Greek Islands of the Aegean Sea, and the so-called Ionian School. This was the art produced in the Ionian Islands by Cretan artists who took refuge on these Venetian-held islands after the fall of Crete to the Ottoman Turks in 1667. The School of the Ionian Islands produced some famous and talented artists who provide a direct link from the art of Byzantium to modern Greece.

Icons of the Hellenic World comes from one of the finest collections of Greek Icons in the nation. A leading international expert in the field and an avid collector of Greek and Russian Icons ever since his university student days in the 1960’s, Athens-born Emmanuel Tiliakos was interested in icons long before they were considered to be “works of art” by most collectors. Collecting icons has been a labor of love, taking him on frequent travels to antiques markets all over the US and many European capitals.

"We are very grateful to Argie and Emmanuel Tiliakos for the opportunity to showcase their extraordinary collection, giving contemporary viewers a window into the richness of Greek culture and history," says Museum of Russian Icons CEO and Curator Kent Russell. "Though icons are considered works of art, they are important cultural and religious reliss. Handed down through generations, icons are often the only surviving testimonies of places and peoples long gone."

Born in Athens, Emmanuel Tiliakos studied engineering and worked at the Hellenic Shipyards and Greek Atomic Energy Commission before being awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study at Yale University, where he studied Art History and Archeology, and received his Bachelors of Arts Degree in 1967. He continued his studies at Harvard University in Architecture where he received two degrees from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the first Master’s in Architecture (’72) and the second Master’s of City Planning in Urban Design (’73). After completing his studies, he worked for several architectural firms and while employed at The Architects Collaborative (TAC) he participated in the creation of the Overall City Plan of the newly created city of Jubail, Saudi Arabia. This was a newly created city to support the oil and gas production facilities that has grown to be the world’s largest civil engineering project.

Tiliakos has been a collector and independent art dealer in Boston and New York since 1980, specializing in the arts of the Ancient Near East and Medieval and Renaissance Art.