11.11.1920–23.01.2011
Kallinikos Stavrovouniotis
Kallinikos Stavrovouniotis (born Kostas Mammous) entered the Stavrovouni Monastery in Cyprus as a novice in June 1941 and stayed there for the rest of his life. He learned icon painting from the monastery's painters, on Mount Athos and from Photis Kontoglou, moved from Renaissance methods to the Byzantine technique and painted the monastery's katholikon. In 1996 he published a manual, “The Technique of Hagiography”.
Biography
In the summer of 1941 the young Kostas Mammous, the third child of Petros Mammous and Florentia Liontari, came to the Stavrovouni Monastery in Cyprus. He had been born on 11 November 1920 in Athienou, in the Larnaca District. Soon afterwards he was tonsured a monk under the name Kallinikos.
In the monastery he studied with the local icon painters, above all Fathers Meletios, Dionysios and Stefanos. In 1946, with the blessing of the abbot Varnavas, he left for Greece and Mount Athos to deepen his craft. For his first two months on Athos he worked beside Father Ioannikios Mavropoulos, who died soon afterwards.
Later Kallinikos visited Mystras, Veria, Thessaloniki and Mount Sinai, places where knowledge of Byzantine icon painting had been preserved. He learned from various teachers, among them Photis Kontoglou, and found out a great deal on his own, trying eggs, straw, lime and other materials and different methods. He began with oil paint and later more often mixed his colours with egg. In 1960, after his studies with Kontoglou, he gave up a technique close to that of the Renaissance and turned to the Byzantine one, which he kept to from then on. Archbishop Makarios III of Cyprus supported him in this and in 1962 sent him to Greece for further training. In 1967, on Sinai, he mastered fresco and encaustic (painting with pigments in hot wax). In 1982 Archbishop Chrysostomos I invited him to paint the katholikon, the main church, of the Archbishopric of Cyprus.
His finest frescoes are considered to be those in the katholikon of the Stavrovouni Monastery. Icons by Kallinikos are found in many churches and monasteries in Cyprus and other countries, and his work was shown in exhibitions in various countries. From 2006 he painted only in encaustic.
He taught, passing his skills on to younger icon painters. In 1996 the Holy Archbishopric of Cyprus in Nicosia published his book “The Technique of Hagiography”, with an appendix on the frescoes of Panselinos in the Protaton on Mount Athos. Many people believe that Byzantine icon painting flourished in Cyprus thanks to him: he revived the technique at a time when most icons showed traits of a Russian manner with Western influence. With his money the Kallinikeio, a public building housing municipal offices and the local museum, was built in Athienou.
Kallinikos died on 23 January 2011 at the Stavrovouni Monastery, aged 90. The funeral service took place on 25 January, and he was buried in Athienou.
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