Gathering of Manna is a large scale mythological painting (hanging in Louvre Museum, Paris) that conveys the dramatic force of the biblical divine act of the distribution of the Manna. The canvas aims to depict an entire people by showing groups of representative actors of both sexes and all ages. In a way, the scene is a rare occurrence: everyone is an active participant, as everyone must participate in order to survive; there is no room for psychological ambivalence. By choosing a theme with a secured engrossing dramatic impulse, Poussin might have attempted to explore pantheistic and holistic ideas (and ideals) of the relationship of all humanity with God. The Gathering of Manna is a unique case of reverse offering, which reinforces the symbiotic nature of that relationship.
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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 self conscious and inward gaze becomes the third angle of the imaginary triangle that connects the three pairs of eyes; its unsure, timid stamping accords with the general mood of a tense and meaningful moment. The artist employs an interesting, perhaps slightly ironic, compositional trick by placing the animal’s hind legs near the beggars elegant lower limbs (both are bony). This irony may be the only point of emotional rest in this painting, and it is not accidentally located at the lower part of the canvas, implying the hierarchy of comedy and more serious modes of psychic experience, manifested by those faces.
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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 the Church of Santo Tomé, Toledo) appears like the exact opposite of the appropriately grave conduct below: disorderly, joyfully inspiring, fantastical and fanciful to the point of being bizarre. There is great sense to such distribution of imaginative chaos and order; after all, the artist may have well witnessed analogous processions, and could have had the privilege of depicting from memory, whereas the only guide for the metaphysical scene above the physical one might have been only his fantasy. And as long as he stayed within the catholic doctrinal framework, pure invention was probably encouraged.
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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 convert, reinvent and subordinate ideas, for his own particular needs. The clouds, a background element, suddenly assume the utmost role of signifying sainthood, while Raphael’s gesture becomes reincarnated to involve a different actor, a man, standing behind Mary. I think that this is an essential quality of the artist, as it reveals broad intellectual capacity — something that I found convenient to write off as secondary to El Greco’s dominant emotionalism. It seems that after all the head and the heart are together in this ploy, without any preferences.
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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 and books on El Greco (britannica full article), overwhelms, while the texts deal the final blow of futility. Blah…blah…blah. Let’s pretend I haven’t written anything yet and start afresh. The shocking red of the protagonist’s garment immediately forces the mood; color dominates the image unconditionally, with facial expressions following far behind, supplementing the psychological tension, and composition serving only a rudimentary purpose, as to not to interfere with the red solo. The latter’s explosive power is disproportionate to that of composition, marking palette as outright exotic and grotesque.
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