The seventh and final manual of the series Classical Knowledge and Classical Languages in Secondary Education is titled Ancient Greek Art and Its Radiance and is a collaborative work by the couple Manolis and Alexandra Boutyra.

Two rare virtues of the manual are justly, I believe, emphasized in advance. One virtue is already reflected in the division of the manual into two nearly equal parts. The first, written by Manolis Boutyra, is inherently archaeological and is titled Ancient Greek Art. Developing into eight well-crafted chapters, it sufficiently and vividly covers the entire spectrum of Greek art, from the Dark Ages and the geometric period to the late Hellenistic era.

The second part, rare and unpredictable in similar cases, is attributed to the knowledgeable expertise and persistent effort of Alexandra Goulaki-Boutyra. She systematically investigates and composes in six chapters the fundamental elements that testify to the fertile and evolving influence of ancient Greek art on more recent times, from the early Renaissance to the end of the 20th century.

Concluding with the traces and marks of the ancient Greek artistic tradition, as recognized in prominent figures and works of modern Greek art. The second methodological and ideological virtue concerns the bidirectional type with which the principle of radiance and influence is understood and applied in this case, in the course and evolution of ancient Greek art.

Confirming the productive value that the method of reciprocity also holds in the artistic domain. This means: in art, whoever gives receives, and whoever receives gives. Only in this way does the foreign example transform into the familiar, and the familiar becomes foreign, continuously broadening the horizon of artistic creation, both in the dimension of space and in the axis of time.

This means that the bidirectional radiance and influence of ancient Greek art constitute a type of culture open in space and time, promoting the principle of mutual exchange even in the broader areas of economics and politics, especially when it is shaken. From this perspective, the seventh and final manual of the series is not out of place and time.