With the generation of the '30s, the historical cycle that had opened in Crete in the 15th century will be completed. A cycle that will lead from sacred painting to a secular painting, proclaimed as a continuation of the Byzantine and post-Byzantine tradition.

This historical cycle was particularly arduous and crooked, as the occupation by foreign conquerors intensified the tendencies of obsession with the religious identity of the Greeks and the rejection of any reform that ignored the Orthodox individuality of the Greeks. The artists' aim will be to adhere unwaveringly to the Byzantine tradition and to reproduce - if possible ab aecterno - the same sacred forms...

When the Cretan center is lost after the Turkish conquest in 1669, the domestic tradition will plunge into folk painting and iconography. Humble Epirus and "Dintian" artists will maintain, even in the simplest form, the indigenous artistic tradition - the swan song of which will be the works of Dimitrios and Panagiotis Zografos.

After a period of cultural alienation, the lesson of the West - towards the "equal of European" (Gykas, Lytras, early Chaleppas) - will have already been absorbed, and the Greek world will be preparing for the leap towards the Great Idea: scholars (Parthenis) and folk (Theophilos) artists will attempt to meet with the indigenous painting tradition.

The tragic end of the dream in 1922 will not lead to a halt in the course but, on the contrary, to its deepening. The generation of the '30s will dig deeper into the timeless Greek essence, towards the "Greek Greekness" of Giorgos Seferis, in order to make possible an equal dialogue with the West...

Perhaps, with the closure of this historical chapter, in a tragic, meaningful circle, will the ancient drama come to an end, or will it mark the beginning of a new virtuous cycle? Will younger Greek artists, or at least those who do not sink into meaningless manners, continue creatively from where Eggonopoulos and Kontoglou left off?