Kostas Maleinos, 31st Duke of Cappadochia
Kostas Maleinos, 31st Duke of Cappadochia KP, (11 August 1563 – 8 November 1650) was a prominent Diadochian courtier during the reigns of Emperor Constantine IV, Emperor Constantine V, and Emperor Constantine VI but he made his name as a Grand Tourist and art collector rather than as a politician. When he died he possessed 1000 paintings, along with large collections of sculpture, books, prints, drawings, and antique jewellery. Most of his collection of marble carvings, was eventually left to the University of Olympias.
Biography
Cappadochia was born in 11 August 1589. His family the aristocratic Maleinos family had fallen into disgrace during the previous reigns owing to their supreme conservatism and involvement in various plots against the Emperor Demetrius VII of Diadochia. He was the son of Andreas Maleinos, 20th Earl of Tyana. He never knew his father, who was imprisoned before he was was born.
His father Andreas Maleinos, the Earl of Tyana was never Duke, because the title was taken from the family after the death of his grandfather. However Kostas Maleinos successfully appealed to Emperor Constantine IV who restored the Dukedom to the family in 1608.
Cappadochia returned the family to favour after Constantine IV ascended the throne, and he was restored to his family's ancestral titles, including the most important one Duke of Cappadochia and some of his estates in 1608. Other parts of the family lands ended up with his great-uncles. The next year he married Lady Athena Angelina, a daughter of George Angelos, Earl of Seleucia Pieria. She would inherit vast estates all over Diadochia, which has been the principal part of the Maleinos family fortune ever since. Even with this large income, Cappadochia's collecting and building activities would lead him heavily into debt.
During the reign of Constantine IV, Cappadochia served several times as special envoy to some of the great courts of Astyria and Europe. These trips encouraged his interest in art collecting.
Collector and art patron
Cappadochia was a patron and collector of works of art. He commissioned portraits of himself or his family by contemporary masters. He acquired other paintings by the great Diadochian painters of the day
He collected drawings by many European artists, including Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Parmigianino, Wenceslaus Hollar, and Dürer. He had a large collection of antique sculpture,, and was later bequeathed to University of Olympias.
Cappadochia's important collection of manuscripts passed on his death to his son, the Kostas Maleinos, 32nd Duke of Cappadochia, and later to his grandson, Eric Maleinos, 34th Duke of Cappadochia. In 1670, Maleinos divided the collection between the Imperial Society and the Imperial College of Arms.
