An informed personification of your own combination of Italian language intellectual and philhellenic beliefs toward Greek national identity in the nation-strengthening several months is Stephanos Koumanoudis (1818-99)
While the nation-building turned into the fresh top priority of one’s Greek structural and you will archaeological plans, the latest determine from Winckelmann’s unique visually-minded philhellenism was palpable. From the keeping Greece’s ancient monuments and you may purging its post-traditional of them, the new Germans reestablished which unbroken narrative, strengthening the latest legitimacy of your own modern Greek nation state while also keeping a probably slavish adherence so you’re able to ancient greek language ideals. Which adherence minimal Greece’s prospect of constructing a unique and you may innovative federal term. To construct yet another, progressive regal palace towards Acropolis around the Parthenon could have delivered an effective message towards continued narrative regarding classical Greek records, however, von Klenze’s rejection of such proposals in favor of fixing the Parthenon revealed that German ideological statecraft popular so you’re able to establish Greek national sovereignty by the excavating and you may targeting their links to their old early in the day. The Germans proceeded to conceive out-of Greek cultural really worth as being embodied by the old relics.
The latest mental goals ones German-driven state principles inside the structures and you will urban development once again open new liminality of the modern Greek social identity. Italian language design from Greek federal name depended into the excavation and elevation from Greece’s ancient monuments. This step, yet not, thought a seamless narrative between your the newest modern Greek condition and you can the ancient past one to did not can be found. The presence of structural elements off intervening attacks away from Greek background, whether Byzantine, medieval, otherwise Ottoman, undermined the effectiveness of one to continued Greek federal name motivated by ideological preparations for instance the “continuity thesis.” For the Germans, such before unacknowledged attacks from Greek history produced Greece “one another holy and you will contaminated…holy due to the fact mythic predecessor out-of Western european people and contaminated of the the fresh taint of your Turks, viewed by Europeans since embodiment from barbarism and you may worst” (Athanassopoulos 2002, 280).
To reestablish so it continuity, palimpsest monuments needed seriously to has the low-traditional elements deleted
not, numerous well-known Greeks have been influenced by German philhellenism in their own steps and regulations. Ross’ replacement due to the fact director of your own Archaeological Workplace, an enthusiastic Athenian auted Kyriakos Pittakis (1798-1863), even with without specialized archaeological education, had developed an apparently unrivaled warmth to have antiquities, on account of their thorough collaborations with German or other Eu archaeologists (Athanassopoulos 2002, 295). In addition to serving once the Director of the Archaeological Office, Pittakis and helped receive the latest Archaeological Society off Athens, 
and singlehandedly saved individuals antiquities round the Athens and you may Attica from modern system developments (Athanassopoulos 2002, 296). Also, Alexandros Rizos Rangavis, a great heterecthon regarding Constantinople experienced when you look at the Munich and Bucharest, held ranks during the both Ministry of Studies in addition to College off Athens, and you can was also a founding person in this new Archaeological Society. From inside the a presentation in the Society’s inaugural fulfilling, the guy echoed the current Italian language view of Greece just like the a continuing narrative from traditional grandeur disturbed because of the a long “period of enslavement”, the latest stays of which “had no added the fresh new social culture of your the fresh country” (Athanassopoulos 2002, 297).
An enthusiastic Adrianopolic Greek who had learned at the Italian language colleges within the Berlin and you may Munich, Koumanoudis became a well known contour regarding intellectual groups out-of Othonian Athens on account of their “pro-classicist views, composed of an amalgam out of Western european rationalism, German Idealism, and you will Greek nationalism” (Fatsea 2017, 69). His work, and therefore clearly invoked Winckelmann, debated you to a wonderful Greek revival in addition to development of long lasting progressive Greek federal name expected a get back to new aesthetic versions from traditional Greece, accessible through neoclassicism, since created by the western european article writers. Their “bipolar” conceptions of Greek artwork well-known between your ancient, “western,” “Greek,” in addition to Byzantine, “eastern,” “non-Greek” (ibid.). For Koumanoudis, an effective Greek artistic revival was not you can easily with no subversion out of the second group.