A handsome painter who died young but already respected for his art by kings and scholars. A free-spirited woman who travels in a foreign country and lives dressed as a man to fulfill her dream to study Art. Some years later, the same woman dies shattered by the death of her two children, abandoned by her husband and youngest son. A life turbulent as the sea, drawn by the young artist in all its beauty, with Nordic austerity and Mediterranean light. A group of paintings, scattered around the world or well kept by discreet keepers of family secrets, to be gathered again and reveal the public a story worth telling – which has already been a novel.

 

This is what is seen in a new exhibit in the Benaki Museum, dedicated to the Altamura family, whose life and times is seen mainly through the paintings of son Ioannis Altamuras but also his Greek mother’ s, the famous Eleni Altamura-Boukoura, his brother’s Alexandros and his Italian father, Francesco Saverio Altamura. Discover the family secrets in the Benaki, Peiraios building, from the 31st of March to the 31st of May.

Source: E-net.gr via Αρχαιολογ?α Online, 16/03/11