Study for “Epitymbion”

The female nude was a cornerstone of Yannis Moralis’ artistic language—a central motif, a driving force, a structuring principle. From his prewar studies in Rome and Paris to his final geometric ‘Erotic’ paintings, Moralis harnessed the female form, deconstructing and reassembling it.

This study for the “Funeral Composition” was produced in June 1955, three years before the completion of the final work. Executed on a tall, narrow canvas, it presents a life-sized full-length nude portrait, likely modeled by Filitsa, who also appears in two earlier works from 1954. The young woman stands with her legs crossed before a half-open door. Her right hand supports the elbow of her bent left arm, which in turn cradles her chin. She meets the viewer’s gaze directly, her eyes piercing, her lips slightly parted. Behind her, a darkness looms—a symbolic space that evokes death, the unknown, the unfulfilled desire. The restrained palette is exquisitely calibrated: the deep red of the door, the turquoise trim, the Prussian blue and black that outline her silhouette, and the soft pinks applied sparingly to her lips, forehead, cheekbones, nipple, and arms. A shadow discreetly shelters the artist’s signature as if in a hidden recess. Compared to the resolved figure in the final “Funeral Composition,” the contemplative woman here feels vividly present, anchored in reality rather than death or dream.