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Brothers Karamazov, acrylic on canvas, 2021
The three characters are a wondrous group as three completely different worlds. The heroes are placed in a single three-angled layout as if their faces are engraved in a regular triangle. This stat- ic setting, however, cannot prevent these static characters from having a single glance that reflects something about which three of them are asking, maybe let fate, as if they were in a house and through a window, look at the destiny that passes by the house, where it seems to be completely serious. Impressive is the seri- ousness of anyone who observes something that washes us away as if it were something invisible and angelic. And they seem to have a petrified expression while watching the scene, and as if it gives them unity, to live like brothers. In its simplicity (triunity), this portrait is impressive in achieving the unattainable: three im- movable men seem interesting to us thanks to the instinct of the oneness coming out of their eyes. — Stamatis Skliris
Amour Propre of Nastasya Filippovna, acrylic on canvas, 2022
Of the many characters we see in Dostoyevsky’s novels, few of the principal characters are female. However, in one of his more fa- mous novels, The Idiot, we find perhaps one of the strongest fe- male characters of most nineteenth-century literature, if not of Europe, then at least of Russia. Nastassya is the most dramatic and complex character in the novel The Idiot. Defined by her sensual beauty and remarkable looks, she steers the course of this novel and the fate of Prince Myshkin and Rogozhin. Nastasya Filippovna, a proud, yet exploited woman, is by far one of Dosto- yevsky’s most intriguing characters. She has an instantaneous and dramatic effect on the characters surrounding her. The Idiot can understand Nastasya Filippovna’s abrupt changes of mood, and perhaps we should not attempt to narrow the formula for her motivations.
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