“Shakespeare”, acrylic on canvas, by Bishop Maxim, 2022

A strong portrait, nice posture, especially the face, weighty, thinking, with a discrete smile. The paper he reads has tremendous success as a little crumpled, maybe a little stained. However, on paper, imprints of lived time, the portrait brings to life the inanimate time. The garment is as convincing as it is of its time. Тhe horizontal strokes of Shakespearean clothing point to a writer who meditates and walks, a little bent over and is the intellectual who writes the history of the spirit, and does not need uniforms, medals, and crowns. The background discreetly but expressively reveals the inner spiritual storms that Shakespeare lived while fighting with the spirits.

I cannot help but swim in the sea of aesthetic surprises caused to me by the painter Bishop Maxim. He is completely immersed in the spirit of tragedy, and we are initiated in the mythical but also highly interactive way of painting that proclaims Shakespeare as a spirit monument, that is, someone who will forever spark our memory like lightning. Like lightning coming from our future encounter with the haloed people (That is, those whom God changed the crown of thorns with the halo).

Fr. Stamatis Skliris