Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Costumes
On the 1st floor, prepare to be wowed by a seemingly endless sequence of native dress,
from islands all over Greece and on into the Peloponnese, Epiros, Macedonia and Thrace.
The spacious displays are interspersed with other priceless objects, like carved marble
door frames and Ottoman jewel-encrusted crowns.
Reception Halls
Amazingly, Benaki collected entire rooms: inlaid ceilings, marble floors, antique benches.
Two particularly striking examples are the reception hall of the Voulgaris Manision in Hy-
dra (a gift of Pasha Gazi-Hassam) and a mid-18th-century hall from Kazani, Macedonia.
Cretan School Painters
Painters in Venetian-held Crete (15th-16th centuries) developed a signature icon-painting
style. The Benaki holds masterpieces of the genre in room 12, which includes work by
Domenikos Theotokopoulos (El Greco, 1541-1614), and several by Theodoros Poulakis
(1622-1692), in room 27.
