Nikoll Idromeno (; 15 August 186012 December 1939), better known as Kolë Idromeno, was an Albanian painter, sculptor, architect, photographer,

cinematographer The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the recording of a film, television production, music video or other live-action piece. The cinematographer is the chief of the camera ...

, composer and engineer during the Albanian Renaissance in the nineteenth century. He is widely regarded as a precursor of both realism and

landscape art Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction in painting of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, rivers, trees, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a coh ...

Albania Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...

. Kolë Idromeno was born in

Shkodër Shkodër ( , ; sq-definite, Shkodra; historically known as Scodra or Scutari) is the List of cities and towns in Albania, fifth-most-populous city of Albania and the seat of Shkodër County and Shkodër Municipality. Shkodër has been List of o ...

, which was at that time part of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

. At age 16, he moved to

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

for six months and began his studies at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia. Subsequently, he travelled throughout Europe and moved back to Shkodër and worked essentially in a variety of artistic fields. In addition, he made himself strongly committed for the Independence of Albania whereby he was forced to emigrate to

Ulcinj Ulcinj () is a town in the Coastal Montenegro, Coastal region of Montenegro and the capital of Ulcinj Municipality. It has an urban population of 11,488. As one of the oldest settlements in the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic coast, it was founded in 5th ...

. Among his important works are a series of paintings where he tried to depict the social aspects of everyday life, customs and religion exactly as it appears. He was also distinguished for its rich use of colours and decorative shades with certain ethnographic elements and landscapes depicting places in or near

. As an architect, he drew the plans for around fifty buildings either private and public. He also designed several industrial facilities, banks, the Rozafa cinema and Kafja e Madhe café. The

coffer A coffer (or coffering) in architecture is a series of sunken panels in the shape of a square, rectangle, or octagon in a ceiling, soffit or vault. A series of these sunken panels was often used as decoration for a ceiling or a vault, al ...

ed ceiling of the St. Stephen's Cathedral, which is one of the largest cathedrals in the

Balkans The Balkans ( , ), corresponding partially with the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throug ...

, was also a design by Kolë Idromeno.

Biography

Life

Kolë Idromeno was of

Cham Cham or CHAM may refer to: Ethnicities and languages *Chams, people in Vietnam and Cambodia **Cham language, the language of the Cham people ***Cham script *** Cham (Unicode block), a block of Unicode characters of the Cham script * Cham Albani ...

origin and was born on 15 August 1860 in

. The Idromeno family were

Cham Albanians Cham Albanians or Chams (; , ), are a sub-group of Albanians who originally resided in the western part of the region of Epirus in southwestern Albania and northwestern Greece, an area known among Albanians as Chameria. The Chams have their ow ...

who came from

Parga Parga (, , ) is a town and municipality located in the northwestern part of the Preveza (regional unit), regional unit of Preveza in Epirus (region), Epirus, northwestern Greece. The seat of the municipality is the village Kanallaki. Parga lies on ...

, they went to settle in

Corfu Corfu ( , ) or Kerkyra (, ) is a Greece, Greek island in the Ionian Sea, of the Ionian Islands; including its Greek islands, small satellite islands, it forms the margin of Greece's northwestern frontier. The island is part of the Corfu (regio ...

later on. Pope Andrea Idromeno was a teacher in Corfu, he was the grandfather of Kolë. In Corfu he compiled and published the history of Parga and Souli, and also helped Grigor Gjirokastriti in translating the

Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...

and the

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

into the

Albanian language Albanian (Endonym and exonym, endonym: , , or ) is an Indo-European languages, Indo-European language and the only surviving representative of the Albanoid, Albanoid branch, which belongs to the Paleo-Balkan languages, Paleo-Balkan group. It ...

with the

Greek alphabet The Greek alphabet has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early 8th century BC. It was derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, and is the earliest known alphabetic script to systematically write vowels as wel ...

. Pope Andrea had two sons, Mihal who was a lawyer and Arsen, who was born in Corfu. His father, Arsen Idromeno, in 1856 moved to

, where he practiced his trade as a carpenter and joiner, as well as a self-taught designer and implementer of private constructions in the city, such as the houses of the Lukaj family in Arra Madhe, Rokacollve in Serreq, the building of the Red ''Cross'' , the Illyricum ''lyceum'' and own house in ''Gjujadol.'' ''He'' resided most of his lifetime in

, where he worked as a building contractor and married the local resident Roza Saraçi, the mother of Kolë. In his hometown Shkodër, Pjetër Marubi, a close friend of the family, gave Kolë lessons on photography and started at the age of eleven to paint his first paintings with watercolors. With the compulsion and support of Marubi, he moved to

and stayed for some months at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia, the academy of fine arts. Afterwards, he worked in the studio of an Italian painter. After his studies in

, he started to travel around

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

and decided to move back to his hometown in 1878. There, he engaged himself in a number of different activities, working as in the fields of architecture, sculpture, photography, painting, composing,

scenic design Scenic design, also known as stage design or set design, is the creation of scenery for theatrical productions including Play (theatre), plays and Musical theatre, musicals. The term can also be applied to film and television productions, wher ...

and engineering.

Career

Work

Kolë Idromeno is considered as the founder of Realism in the country and the most important painter of the Albanian Renaissance, which started in the 19th century. He is referred as

Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (6March 147518February 1564), known mononymously as Michelangelo, was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was inspir ...

of Albania. Idromeno established a very active photographic studio and was the first artist to show motion pictures in country in 1912. In addition, he had kept up a correspondence with the

Lumière brothers Lumière is French for 'light'. Lumiere, Lumière or Lumieres may refer to: Buildings * Lumière, a building used by the Bibliothèque publique d'information in Paris, France * Lumiere (skyscraper), a cancelled skyscraper development in Leeds, ...

in Paris. In 1923, Idromeno was the initiator of the first art exhibition in Shkodër and was represented in the first national art exhibition in

Tirana Tirana ( , ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in Albania, largest city of Albania. It is located in the centre of the country, enclosed by mountains and hills, with Dajti rising to the east and a slight valley to the northwest ov ...

in 1931. Until 1896, Idromeno painted mainly paintings with religious themes. Afterwards, he painted probably the first Albanian

secular Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin , or or ), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. The origins of secularity can be traced to the Bible itself. The concept was fleshed out through Christian hi ...

and realistic pictures with illustrating historical events and everyday motifs such as festivals and costumes such as "Dasma Shkodrane". He followed to paint various landscapes, "Oborri i Shtëpisë Shkodrane", and became the first landscape painter of modern Albanian art. His most famous work is '' Motra Tone'' (English: "Our Sister"), which shows his sister. This artwork is sometimes referred to as Albanian

Mona Lisa The ''Mona Lisa'' is a half-length portrait painting by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. Considered an archetypal masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, it has been described as "the best known, the most visited, the most written about, ...

. His works were represented in international exhibitions for example in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

(1900) and New York City, United States (1939). One of his best works, not very popular, is the portrait of Gjergj Kastriot Skënderbeu painted in 1890. It is under the ownership of the Shehaj family's art collection. This painting was framed as the centerpiece of the book "51 Albanian Painters" (51 Piktorë Shqiptarë) based on the art collection of the Shehaj family. As an architect, Idromeno has carved his name into many well-known objects in Shkodra. The list includes Kafja e Madhe, the St. Stephen's Cathedral, Church of Shirokë, first electrical station of the town, Radovan Building, the Prefecture Building, Mosque of Parrucë and most of the residences of

villa A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house that provided an escape from urban life. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the f ...

s along the main boulevard in the northern historical district of Shkodra.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Idromeno, Kole 1860 births 1939 deaths Albanian architects Albanian photographers Albanian landscape painters People from Shkodër 19th-century Albanian painters Albanian male painters 20th-century Albanian painters 20th-century Albanian sculptors 19th-century sculptors Painters from the Ottoman Empire Albanian people from the Ottoman Empire

Biography

Life

Career

Work

See also

References