Panagiotis Doxaras

Panagiotis Doxaras
Born	1662 Mani
Died	1729 Corfu, part of the Republic of Venice (modern day Greece)
Occupation	painter

Panagiotis Doxaras (Greek: Παναγιώτης Δοξαράς) (1662–1729) was a Greek painter who founded the Heptanese School of Greek art.

He was born in Mani, although his family originated from Kalamata. In 1664, his family moved to Zante, where he was taught iconography by Leo Moscos. In 1694 he joined the Venetian army and fought against the Ottomans in Chios during the Morean War. In 1696 he left the Venetian army but continued recruiting fighters from Mani to fight for Venice against the Turks. The Venetians rewarded him with a knighthood and later (1721) by donating him several acres of land in Lefkas. From 1699 to 1704 he studied painting in Venice and from 1704 to 1715 he lived in Kalamata, which was then briefly under Venetian rule. The rest of his life he lived in the Ionian islands dividing his time between Lefkas, Corfu and Zante. He died in 1729. He had five daughters and three sons.

Doxaras' work signals the departure of Greek painting from the Byzantine iconography towards the Western European Renaissance art. He admired passionately the great Italian painters and in particular Leonardo da Vinci, whose book Art of painting (Trattato della pittura) he translated into Greek.

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