George Savas Cypriot military officer

Gender information of the object: 
Male
Color: 
Coloured
Author: 
Euphrosyne Rizopoulou-Egoumenidou
Type: 
Watercolour
Primary Material: 
Paper
3D object: 
3D object
Source: 
Costas & Rita Severis Foundation Since 1999, the Costas & Rita Severis Foundation has organised cultural and educational events while promoting research and scholarship in Cyprus. In 2013, the Foundation began implementing the Sharing History, Art, Research & Education (SHARE) initiative, a partnership programme of the Costas & Rita Severis Foundation, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Turkish Cypriot University Women’s Association, and the NGO Support Center. The goal of SHARE is to provide a common platform for the exploration of the island’s cultural heritage by means of visual and creative arts, through which to increase the potential for peaceful coexistence in Cyprus. In 2014, the Foundation opened the Centre of Visual Arts & Research (CVAR) on Ermou Street, in the heart of the walled city of Nicosia. CVAR hosts the Costas & Rita Severis collections, which comprise more than 1,500 works of art by artists travelling to Cyprus during the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, hundreds of Cypriot memorabilia, dozens of Cypriot costumes from the 18th to the 20th centuries, and more than 10.000 books on the history, art and culture of Cyprus and its neighbours.
Code: 
316
Translator: 
Euphrosyne Rizopoulou-Egoumenidou
Description: 
The watercolor depicts ‘George Savas chypri­ote colonel au service Grec’. He is represented in a half-length likeness and as a military officer, he wears an uniform and bears two pistols and a sword around his waist. The richly decorated waistcoat with shoulder flaps resembles the waistcoat called férmeli or férmeni (Turk. fermene), which was worn by Greeks, especially the fighters in the Greek War of Independence, but was also known in Cyprus (see above condemnation of this garment by the Church in 1797). On his head he wears a cap.
Bibliography: 

Severis, R. C., Travelling Artists in Cyprus 1700-1960, London: Phillip Wilson Publishers Limited. 

References/Remarks: 
Sketchbook 6 George Savas chypriote colonel au service Grec, Benjamin Mary. Severis 2000, 101, fig. 90). Severis, R. C., Travelling Artists in Cyprus 1700-1960, London: Phillip Wilson Publishers Limited.