Object ID
F2016.58
Object Name
Photograph
Date Created
1904 – 1908
Medium
Photo Paper
Object Entities
Melas, Pavlos (is related to)
Object Description
A color print of a painted portrait. The image shows a man in a military uniform. He is wearing a long blue coat with red detail. The cuffs of the coat have red embroidery and gold decorationts. The coat is fastened with a flap in front, and the flap is also edged with red embroidery and gold decorations, as well as a cross hanging from one side. Around his waist is a utility belt with a number of pouches, and tucked into the belt is a gun holster with a pistol and spare ammunition rounds. He has more pouches attached to the side of his coat. His right hand is on his hip, while is left is resting on what appear to be the muzzle of a rifle. The man has short brown hair and a handlebar mustache and is wearing a blue cap on his head.
The photograph comes with a matting to which it was previously attached. There is text in Greek at the bottom of the matting, which translates as follows:
"A nation's greatness is not measured by the acre, but by the heart's flame and blood."
Origin
This is a copy of a painting done by Georgios Jakobides between 1904 and 1908.
The man depicted in the portrait is Pavlos Melas. Melas was a Greek war hero who participated in the Greek struggle for Macedonia, during which the Kindom of Greece for with Bulgaria for control of Ottoman Macedonia.
Melas was born in France in 1870 to a wealthy Greek father. The family moved back to Greece when Melas was young, and his father became a member of parliament and the mayor of Athens. In 1891, Melas graduated from the Hellenic Army Academy and became an artillery lieutenant in the Greek Army. He was married in 1892 and had a son in 1895. Melas later worked to raise money to support the Greek population in Macedonia and support their efforts to gain control of the region. In June 1904, Melas entered Macedonia to gain a better understand of the situation there. He also wanted to ascertain whether it would be possible to create a military unit to fight both the Ottoman Turks and the Bulgarian-led revolutionaries who were attempting to gain control of the region. In July 1904 he led a small group of men back into Macedonia to fight the Bulgarians. In October of that year, Melas was surrounded by Ottoman forces in the village of Statista and killed. The village was later renamed "Melas" in his honor.
Rights and Reproduction
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Citation
Photograph, 1904 – 1908, National Hellenic Museum, https://collections.nationalhellenicmuseum.org/Detail/objects/4950. Accessed 03/28/24.