Behold the Bridegroom Arriving

The title is a line from a hymn sung at the early Holy Week services of the Orthodox church, Behold, the Bridegroom comes in the middle of the night, which goes back to the parable of the ten virgins waiting with their lamps. Gyzis was working in Munich when he set out to turn that line into a canvas two metres square, and the National Gallery in Athens dates the work to 1899 and 1900.

The scene is the Second Coming as the Apocalypse of John describes it. Christ sits enthroned in gold light, four angels sound trumpets to either side, Gabriel hangs in the red cloud above, and ranks of haloed angels kneel on the great staircase that leads up to the throne. In a letter Gyzis described the Christ he was after as a gentle god bringing light, salvation and comfort to the world.

He died in 1901 with the painting still unfinished. The gallery shows several of his studies for it alongside, and in some of them almost nothing survives except the light.