Spyridon Sperantzas

Spyridon Sperantzas (Greek: Σπυρίδων Σπεράντζας, 1733 – 1818) was a Greek painter. He flourished during the Greek Neoclassical era and the Modern Greek Enlightenment in art also known as Neo-Hellenikos Diafotismos. Because of the Fall of the Republic of Venice, Sperantzas brought the Heptanese School into the Greek Romantic period. By the 1800s the Ionian Islands were occupied by both French and English forces and for the first time since the fall of the Byzantine Empire, the local Greeks governed themselves. Sperantzas, Nikolaos Kantounis, and Nikolaos Koutouzis represent the transition in painting that defined Modern Greek art. Sperantzas was influenced by Nikolaos Kallergis, Nikolaos Doxaras, and Nikolaos Koutouzis. His son Michael Sperantzas was also a famous painter and his apprentice. Spyridon also painted frescos.