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El Greco: View of Toledo

I would like to pick up the idea of electricity from the previous review and see how well (very well) it fits into this landscape (hanging in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York — and you will find an interesting thematic essay on this website). The raptured, electrified sky casts a distinct white glow [...]

 
El Greco: Saint Martin and the Beggar

I think that (the painting hangs in the National Gallery of Art, Washington) the saturnine mood displayed by the faces seeps into the bodies, even that of the animal. The elongated, sinewy physique of the beggar appears to be melting, flowing downwards, as if unable to resist the gloomy sentimentality of the scene. The horse’s [...]

 
El Greco: The Burial of the Count of Orgaz

That’s a pretty odd sounding name. But let’s not hold it against the owner. Though, there is indeed something orgiastic in the happenings above the funeral, and I mean that in the strict formal sense, without any cynical attempts at blasphemy. The artistic confusion taking place in the celestial scene (the painting is located in [...]

 
El Greco: The Holy Family (with Saint Anne)

The first thing I noticed about this painting was St. Joseph’s hand supporting the baby’s foot: Raphael’s invention in a different variation. The second was the strange looking clouds, the gape above the Virgin’s head serving as a halo. While these features differ significantly in their specificity, they may both index El Greco’s ability to [...]

 
El Greco: The Disrobing of Christ (El Espolio)

I am already used to the imposing sense of helplessness reemerging whenever I try to think up accolades for the masterpieces discussed on this website.The visual and technical grandeur of this painting (hanging in Toledo Cathedral, a magnificent Gothic monument — click here to see more explained photographs of Toledo Cathedral), described in numerous essays [...]

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