Theodoros Vryzakis enrolls at the Munich Academy

Theodoros Vryzakis (1814 – 1878) was born in Thebes, lived through the horror of war (the Turks hanged his father), and grew up in an orphanage in Aegina. In 1832 he went to Munich and became the first Greek to enroll in the Academy of Munich, thus marking the beginning of the “School of Munich” ( an artistic term describing the body of Greek artists who studied art in Munich and returned to Greece bringing with them the aesthetic trends and concepts that were taught in Germany).
Vryzakis mostly insisted on the idealized depiction of the Revolution, and he created a series of paintings that, in due time, identified with the historical events. However, his work is devoid of realism. It appears strikingly staged as in his picture “The exodus of Messolonghi” (1853, National Gallery, Athens), where he depicts the Greeks guided by Jesus Christ and surrounded by divine light while they fight the Turks.