NEUROSCIENCE AND ART

LIFE AND TIMES OF YANNOULIS CHALEPAS

  • Konstantinos Tsamakis Second Department of Psychiatry, University of Athens, “ATTIKON” University Hospital, Athens, Greece https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0063-8413
  • Ioannis Karakis Emory University School of Medicine
Keywords: art, Chalepas, neurology, neuroscience, psychiatry, schizophrenia

Abstract

https://doi.org/10.31952/amha.20.1.8

 

The objective of this article is to highlight the bidirectional relationship between neuroscience and art in the life and times of the most preeminent sculptor in modern Greek history, Yannoulis Chalepas. Analysis of biographical sources and testimonies on the life and works of Yannoulis Chalepas was performed. Findings are discussed in relation to the neuropsychiatric maladies that he faced in his lifespan and their impact on his art. Yannoulis Chalepas’ life and art are trichotomized in a charismatic, premorbid era (1851-1877), a prolonged, medieval, morbid period (1878-1917), and a transfigurative, post morbid era (1918-1938). The amalgamate of medical evidence suggests that Yannoulis Chalepas suffered from schizophrenia. That was reflected in his art through two distinct periods of artistic productivity and stylistic creativity. The bidirectional relationship between neuroscience and art in the history of humanity is also exemplified in the legacy of Yannoulis Chalepas. The borderland of artistic ingenuity with aberrant behavior, the misconceptions of neurocognitive disorders with psychosis along with their associated social stigma, the effect of artistic expression in the manifestation of psychiatric disease, as well as its healing and often transformative power are concepts that still tantalize equally scientists and artists around the globe.

Author Biographies

Konstantinos Tsamakis, Second Department of Psychiatry, University of Athens, “ATTIKON” University Hospital, Athens, Greece

CONSULTANT PSYCHIATRIST

Ioannis Karakis, Emory University School of Medicine

Associate Professor of Neurology     

Emory University School of Medicine

Faculty Office Building at Grady Campus, 49 Jesse Hill Jr. Drive SE, Office 335

Atlanta, GA 30303

Published
2022-05-31