Adam Friedel
Adam Friedel alias Adam de Friedel alias Adam Friedel von Friedelsburg (* approx. 1780 -?) Was a Danish philhellene and adventurer who was in Greece at the time of the Greek liberation struggles and portrayed the leaders of the Greek uprising.
Friedel went to Greece at the beginning of the Greek Revolution. He appeared there with a large cavalry sword as Lieutenant Colonel Baron Friedel von Friedelsburg. His grandiloquent but unconvincing accounts of his (actually nonexistent) Friedelsburg castle in Denmark and his relationships in Europe were soon exposed by a real Danish nobleman. It is not clear whether Friedel was his real name or whether he had acquired the personal details of a deceased Danish lieutenant colonel.
When his expectations of the rank of officer were dashed during the formation of military Philhellenic units, he gave up his military ambitions and wandered around gazing about in Greece during the period of the Greek liberation struggles, proving himself to be a talented actor, musician and artist. He carried a lithographic hand press on his back and made portraits of the leaders of the Greek Revolution. He created portraits of Theodoros Kolokotronis , Nikitaras , Mavromichalis , Markos Botsaris , Dimitrios Ypsilantis , Ioannis Kolettis , Alexandros Mavrokordatos , Laskarina Bouboulina , Manto Mavrogenous and several portraits of Lord Byron , including well-known representations on which Byron is depicted with a Homeric helmet .
After his return to England, he had a series of 24 portraits of the leaders of the Greek uprising drawn “according to nature”, consisting of four sheets of six portraits each, printed. They appeared in numerous editions in Paris and London in 1826 and 1827 (converted into lithographs and colored by Joseph Bouvier) and were widely used in Europe. This dissemination was of great importance for the propaganda of the Philhellenes in favor of the Greek uprising.
Works
Adam Friedel: Portraits of the leaders of the Greek Revolution . Ed .: Dimitra Kukiu-Mitropoulou, Historical and Ethnologiki Society of Greece. Athens 2007 (Original title: Προσωπογραφίες αγωνιστών της Ελληνικής Επανάστασης .).
Individual evidence
- ^ Wilhelm Barth, Max Kehrig-Korn: Die Philhellenenzeit . Hueber, Munich 1960, p. 119 .
- ^ William St. Clair: That Greece Might Still Be Free: The Philhellenes in the War of Independence . Open Book Publishers, Cambridge 2008, ISBN 978-1-906924-00-3 , pp. 89 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).
- ↑ "Lord Byron, dreaming of the freedom of Greece" ( Figure. Accessed October 28, 2009 . )
- ^ "Lord Byron, Advocate and Supporter of the Greek Nation". (PDF (1 page, 403 kB)) Retrieved October 28, 2009 .
Web links
- Argoliki Vivliothiki (Argolic Archives Library of History and Culture) website. Retrieved October 28, 2009 (Greek).
- Lithographs owned by the Athens City Museum. Retrieved October 28, 2009 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Friedel, Adam |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | de Friedel, Adam; Friedel von Friedelsburg, Adam |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Danish philhellene and artist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 1780 |
| DATE OF DEATH | 19th century |