The Archimandrite Nikandros

From a drawing by (Ann) Mary Newton (1832-1866)

Etched by Arthur Severn (1842-1931)

Source: Newton, facing p. 182

1865

On their travels in the Levant, Mary and Charles Newton met the Archimandrite when they visited the monastry at Zambika, on the south coast of Rhodes, during the Easter celebrations. Mary Newton sketched the elderly patriarch for her husband, and her brother Arthur later engraved the sketch for Charles Newton's subsequent book about their travels and his archeological finds. This particular sketch was no hasty one, but a sympathetic and evocative portrait of the Archimandrite, with enough background detail to suggest the setting. [Commentary continues below.]

Image download, text and formatting by Jacqueline Banerjee. [Click on the image to enlarge it, and mouse over the text for links.]

"On our arrival," explains Charles Newton,

we were ushered into a spacious courtyard full of peasants. In the middle of the crowd was the only ecclesiastic in the monastery, an old gentleman with a venerable beard, a long gown, a black cap, such as we see in pictures of the 15th century, and a staff in his hand.... He came forward and gave us a hospitable welcome, making an attempt to salute me with a kiss on each cheek; our beards met, crossed bayonets, and then retreated; and I could not help feeling that nature had done well in giving us this outwork as a defence against a very ancient, but rather disagreeable custom. [Newton 182-83]

Newton sounds stand-offish and terribly British here! But from the rest of the account it is clear that he respected and admired the Archimandrite, both for his learning and for the simplicity of his life.

Related Material

• Nineteenth-Century Engraving, Wood Engraving, Etching, Lithography, and other forms of Printmaking (sitemap)

Bibliography

Newton, C. T. Travels and Discoveries in the Levant, Vol. I. London: Day & Son, 1865. Internet Archive. Contributed by the Sloan Foundation. Web. 10 January 2020.

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Created 10 January 2020