Background
He was raised by his mother, Despoina Kontoglou, and his uncle Stefanos Kontoglou, who was abbot in the nearby monastery of Aghia Paraskevi.
He was raised by his mother, Despoina Kontoglou, and his uncle Stefanos Kontoglou, who was abbot in the nearby monastery of Aghia Paraskevi.
He spent his childhood among the monastery, the sea and the fishermen. In 1913, he enrolled at the Athens School of Fine Arts. In 1933, he was invited by the Egyptian government to work for the Copt Museum.
However, he decided to stay in Athens and he delivered classes of painting at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.
Among his students were some of the most important modern Greek painters. However, it was his illustrations for his own book, Pedro Kazas, that made him famous.
Kontoglou was a particularly productive artist. A devout Orthodox Christian, he undertook the restoration of the frescos of the Perivleptos church in Mystras.
Furthermore, he painted frescos in various churches all around Greece.
Among them the Kapnikarea church in Athens. He also painted the monumental fresco of the Patriarchs of Constantinople at the town hall of Athens. The iconography on the dome and other areas of the Archdiocesan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in New York City was created by Georgios Gliatas, a student of Kontoglou.
Kontoglou also wrote various works of literature as well as numerous essays.