One theme of the Chicago Literary Renaissance (which was sparked by the 1893 World's Columbian Exhibition and lasted into the 1920s) was a fascination with the rediscovery of ancient writers.
Not immune to this renewed interest in the Ancients, Alfred E. Hamill—a wealthy book collector, poet, and investment banker, as well as the Library's first board president—commissioned a series of murals to highlight the Greeks at the new Lake Forest Library building constructed in 1931. Hamill had recently hired artist Nicolai Remisoff to decorate the tower study of his 1928 Centaurs estate with Byzantine-style frescoes, so hiring Remisoff to paint the Library murals was a logical choice.
The mural panels honor primarily the classical Greeks, who valued a virtuous and rewarding life and thereby set the direction of Western thought and civilization. The murals are painted in a spare, simplified manner reminiscent of Greek vase paintings, drawing on the Art Deco style popular at the time and also reflecting the spartan writing style of the Greeks. They serve as a visual reminder and encouragement to us all to occasionally pick up and ponder deeper, more serious literary work.
Homer with lyre (800s–701 BC)
Pindar in beige (518–438 BC)
Hamill (Remisoff's patron) as the
blue statue in back
The Iliad and the Odyssey are epic poems about the Trojan War and Odysseus' return home. The ancient Greeks believed they were written by Homer. Today, it is uncertain whether Homer existed, with some scholars asserting the poems were passed down verbally and only written down later as the reworking of many contributors.
Considered one of the greatest male lyric poets, Pindar traveled across the Greek world as a poet‑for‑hire. Lyric poems are sung by a chorus and accompanied by a lyre or flute.
Sappho in blue (630–570 BC)
Theocritus in red (300–260 BC)
Sappho is considered the best female lyric poet of antiquity. Plato once said, "Many say there are only nine Muses. How careless! Do they not see the tenth Muse, Sappho of Lesbos?" Sappho's poem Ode to Aphrodite survives, but most of her poems are lost. She founded a school to teach young girls poetry, music, singing, and dancing.
Theocritus was a bucolic poet who wrote about the charms of rural life and shepherds. His poems inspired such poets as Virgil (in Panel 4),
John Milton (Paradise Lost, 1667), and Percy Bysshe Shelley
(Prometheus Unbound, 1820).
Sophocles on left (496–406 BC)
Aeschylus in center (525–455 BC)
Aristophanes in red (446–386 BC)
Euripides seated (480–406 BC)
Tragedians Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides and comic playwright Aristophanes gained their fame through performances at two annual festivals honoring Dionysus, the god of wine and merriment. The Lenaea was held early in the year and featured comedies, while the Great Dionysia was held in the spring and featured tragedies. Judges awarded a prize to the best playwright and crowned them with a laurel wreath.
Virgil in dark blue (70–19 BC)
Remisoff (the artist) behind Virgil
Virgil's magnum opus, the Aeneid, is a Latin epic poem that aimed to rival Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. The Aeneid describes the Trojan hero Aeneas' journey to Italy and subsequent wars there.
Virgil is also famous for writing a series of ten short poems called the Bucolics or Eclogues featuring an idyllic world of singing shepherds. Theocritus (in Panel 2) invented bucolics and was a source of inspiration to Virgil.
The waning moon in the mural may symbolize Virgil's foreboding of unpleasant times to come with the
fall of the Roman Republic.
Cicero in beige (106–43 BC)
Seneca kneeling (4 BC–AD 65)
Cicero was a Roman orator, lawyer, and politician who introduced Romans to Greek philosophy. As a lawyer, he was known for taking risky cases and winning them. As a politician, he worked to uphold the Roman Republic.
Seneca the Younger was a statesman, dramatist, and philosopher who tutored and later advised Emperor Nero. Growing discontent among the ruling class and Nero's increasingly despotic leadership led to a conspiracy to kill Nero. Although it is unlikely that Seneca was involved in the conspiracy, Nero ordered him to kill himself. Seneca's stoic suicide has become the subject of many paintings.
Xenophon in helmet (430–354 BC)
Aesop seated (620–564 BC)
Xenophon was a student of Socrates. He became disillusioned with Athens' justice system when it sentenced Socrates to death, so he became a mercenary soldier in the army of Cyrus, who sought to take control of the Persian throne from his brother. Xenophon went on to become a military historian.
Aesop was a slave from a Greek colony in Thrace who was later freed, possibly thanks to his storytelling ability. His stories won him immediate fame and were retold throughout the Greek world. Aesop's Fables are known for their animal characters and concluding morals.
Aristotle in blue cape (384–322 BC)
Socrates in red cape (470–399 BC)
Plato in green cape (428–348 BC)
Diogenes in tub (412–323 BC)
Socrates is considered the founder of Western philosophy, known for asking questions to encourage insight. Socrates' top student, Plato, recorded many of his teachings. Plato's top student, Aristotle, tutored Alexander the Great, developed the scientific method, and founded the Lyceum, which housed the first research library.
Diogenes the Cynic (which means dog-like in Greek), was a brazen, controversial figure who made a virtue of poverty.
Pythagoras standing with tablet (570–495 BC)
Thales seated with scroll that says “Know thyself” (624–546 BC)
Pythagoras was a Greek polymath accomplished in philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, and music theory. He set up a school in southern Italy where students practiced his beliefs in living a simple life and using numbers to understand the cosmos.
Thales is one of the Seven Sages, the founding figures of Ancient Greece, and is considered the father of physical science. He broke away from using mythology to explain the universe, instead explaining natural phenomena by theories and hypotheses. He might have been one of Pythagoras' teachers.
About the Artist
Nicolai Remisoff was a Russian émigré artist and theatrical designer. He later became a Hollywood film and television set designer of note through the 1940s and 1950s.
Remisoff was born in St. Petersburg in 1887 to actors of the Russian Imperial Theater. He grew up around the stage and was attracted to behind‑the-scenes design work of the theater world. He completed his art education at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in 1918. Shortly thereafter he fled to Ukraine with his wife and son to escape the Bolsheviks who were going to put him on trial as a dissident. The family moved to Paris in 1921 and to New York in 1922.
By 1928, Remisoff was in Chicago where Lake Forest resident and Library board president Arthur E. Hamill was an early and influential patron. Remisoff spent a decade in Chicago working under Hamill's patronage, as well as designing for ballet and opera, until leaving for Hollywood in 1938.
He spent his California years designing sets, costumes, and entire productions of movies and television shows. His style has been called “Russian Vogue.” Remisoff died in Palm Springs in 1975.
