Representing Greekness: French and Greek Lithographs from the Greek War of Independence (1821-1827) and the Greek-Italian War (1940-1941)

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Popular lithographs produced by French and Greek artists during the Greek War of Independence (1821-1827) and the Greek-Italian War (1940-1941) quite often overstated elements of Greek national identity with a focus on classical antiquity and Byzantine Orthodoxy. This is a comparative study of how Greeks and Greece have been represented through the following two collections of the National Historical Museum in Athens: popular lithographs produced, printed, and distributed by French artists in France at the peak of the Philhellenic movement; and those produced by Greek artists in Greece during the Second World War (1940-1941). Although produced more than one hundred years apart and under very different circumstances, popular imagery created by Philhellenes in France during the 1820s and Greek artists under the Metaxas regime in 1940-1941 remains a valuable historical record that helps us explore how popular representations of Greek national identity and the notion of Greece can be adopted and appropriated in a variety of ways based on who is using them and for what purpose.