Page 410 - Beholding Liberty!

ΙΙΙ.5
Ι. Makrygiannis
Arms of the Struggle
Ioannis Makrygiannis (ca. 1782-1827)
BORN IN AVORITI of mountainous Dorida from poor family, his family name was Triantafillou. His appellative “Makrygiannis” was attributed to him due to his high posture. In 1804 his father Dimitrios was killed in a clash with the Turks in Livadia. From 1817 he starts dealing with the trade and owing to his industri- ousness he gains large profits.
In 1820 he gets arrested by the sultan troops, with the accusation of cooperating with Ali Pasha, however, he escapes and runs in the mountains, following the guerrilla Gogo Bakola. Initiated into the Society of the Friends (“Filiki Etairia”), in 1822 he gets appointed as deputy commander of the Castle (the Acropolis) and having as a commander Ioannis Gouras. One year later he is assigned Civil Magistrate of Athens (“supervisor of public order”) by the Supreme Court (Areios Pagos).
He took part in both civil wars supporting the part of the govern- mentals. As a reward in 1824 he was successively promoted to Tribune, Lieutenant General and finally General. At the same time, he participated in crucial battles for the evolution of the Revolu- tion, such as Velitsa and Petra, in the summer of 1823, where he fought with his fellow fighter Nikitas Stamatelopoulos, and the battle of Milon (June1825), in which Ibrahim Pasha was heavily defeated.
In 1826 during the siege of Athens by Kioutahis, Makriyiannis was barricaded in Serpetze (Odeon of Herodes Atticus), showing intense opposition and thus rescuing the Acropolis. In the Atti- ca campaign he took part up until the final relinquishment of the Acropolis to the Turks, in April 1827.
During the Kapodestrian period, he was appointed General Chief of the Executive Power of the Peloponnese, but soon he fell out with the Governor. In the years of Othon, he led in the revolution of 3rd September 1843. Finally, he was accused for conspiracy against the king, he was arrested and sentenced to death. He was released from prison due to Dimitrios Kallegis’ intervention, but his ill health led him to his death on 27 April 1864.
The distinguished position that Makrygiannis holds in the collec- tive memory of the Greeks, apart from his participation in the battle for Independence, is mainly due to his Memoirs which were published in 1907 by Yiannis Vlahoyiannis, which were character- ized by the litterateurs of the “Generation of ’30” as one of the masterpieces of modern Greek literature.
410 BEHOLDING LIBERTY!
ΙΙΙ.5.1
Karl Krazeisen (1794-1878)
Portrait of Ioannis Makrygiannis, 1828
lithograph, 50 × 40.5 cm
signed: Hanfstaengl ft. 1828. (on the image, bottom left) Nach der Natur gez. von Kraxeisen. (bottom left) Gedr. v. Selb. (bottom right) inscribed: MAKRIJANNIS. (low centre)
Hellenic Parliament Art Collection, inv. n. 895
THIS ENGRAVING IS ONE of the series of portraits by Karl Krazeisen [cat. no III.1.2]. Krazeisen met Makrygiannis in Aegina in 1827. He depicts him facing to the left, with noble fea- tures, in lavish costume, with a long sword and a pistol in his belt.