The Poet Shelley

In this portrait of the British Poet and Philhellene, Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822), Sofialakis renders the great Romantic in the classical idiom, expressing, once more, the “sculptor’s preference for the ancient Greek standard of smooth facial surfaces, the slight emphasis on anatomical curvature, the masterfully rendered almond shape of the eyes and the hair, carved with decorative intent. The portrait of Shelley is rendered as an image that corresponds idealistically to the romantic ideologue, the lover of Hellenic civilization, and is reminiscent of the head of a statue from the classical period.”

(Text adapted from Antonopoulou, Zetta (2012). "Introducing Nikos Sofialakis" in "The Battle of Crete by the Sculptor Nikos Sofialakis", (2012) p. 56).