Meeting Point 05: Cultural Foundation of Tinos

Yannoulis Chalepas, Angel (of the Annunciation?), Glory (?), Victory (?), 1918, clay sculpture, 35 × 15 × 23 cm, Collection of the Panhellenic Holy Foundation of Evangelistria, Tinos

The artwork “Angel (of the Annunciation?), Glory (?), Victory (?)” by Yannoulis Chalepas was created in 1918 and is a small-scale sculpture made of unfired clay. It is approximately the size of a large water bottle and stands on a rectangular base. The sculpture depicts a winged female figure that combines iconographic elements of an angel, victory, and glory.

At the upper part of the figure, the head appears slightly tilted to one side. The gaze is directed downwards, as if fixed on an indistinct point before her. The facial features are rendered with restraint. The eye sockets and the nose are primarily discernible, while the mouth is absent. The hair is drawn back and gathered into a bun. On the back of the figure, two closed wings extend vertically in symmetrical alignment. They begin at approximately eye level and descend to the height of the hips. The wings are dense, marked by deep incisions, and are rendered as unified with the body, without openings.

The female figure wears a long chiton with abundant folds that envelop the body, while allowing the chest to be faintly suggested. Draped over the chiton is a mantle that leaves one shoulder exposed. In her right hand she holds a flower, rendered in an abstract manner without detailed articulation.

The lower part of the body rests against a low wall. Her right leg is bent and placed on a step, and the figure is barefoot. Her stance conveys a sense of suspension, as if caught in a moment of rest or contemplation.

The surface of the sculpture is rough, bearing visible traces of the artist’s tools. The absence of fine detail and open spaces, combined with the compact massing of the form, is characteristic of Chalepas’s late period, in which expressive intensity prevails over technical refinement.

The figure does not fully correspond to a religious angel, a winged Victory, or an allegory of Glory. Rather, it appears as a thoughtful and dynamic female presence that unites serenity with inner tension. By merging these iconographic references, Chalepas adapts the figure to his own personal idiom: an angel imbued with the spirituality of salvation, the dynamism of victory, and the grandeur of glory, without decorative excess. The artwork simultaneously evokes both monumental and funerary associations, conveying emotions of introspection, sorrow, and quiet strength.

The creative description of the artwork “Angel (of the Annunciation?), Glory (?), Victory (?)” by Yannoulis Chalepas is the result of co-creation by the participants in Meeting Point 05: Cultural Foundation of Tinos.

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