Works of El Greco
Encyclopedia
El Greco
was a Cretan
-born painter
, sculptor and architect
of the Spanish Renaissance
. El Greco left his birthplace for Venice
in 1567 never to return. El Greco's three years in Venice profoundly influenced his style. In 1577 he emigrated to Toledo
, Spain
, where he lived and worked until the end of his life.
El Greco's oeuvre is thus divided in three main periods:
El Greco was mainly a painter but a few sculptures, including Epimetheus and Pandora, have also been attributed to El Greco. This doubtful attribution is based on the testimony of Pacheco. Pacheco saw in El Greco's studio a series of figurines (of wax, stucco, and wood), but these may have been merely models, like those used in the Italian workshops (like the one El Greco himself had created, when he was in Italy). The figures illustrated recall certain nudes in paintings by El Greco in their elongated proportions, but their naturalism and the accentuated musculature of the male figure are regarded by certain researchers as surprising for El Greco. Among the surviving works of the master are also four drawings; three of them are preparatory works for the altarpiece of Santo Domingo el Antiguo and the fourth one is a study for one of his paintings, The Crucifixion.
, published the first comprehensive catalogue of El Greco's works. In 1937 a highly influential study by art historian Rodolfo Pallucchini had the effect of greatly increasing the publicly accepted works of El Greco. Palluchini attributed to El Greco a small triptych
in the Galleria Estense
at Modena
on the basis of a signature on the painting on the back of the central panel on the Modena triptych. There was consensus that the triptych was indeed an early work of El Greco and, therefore, Pallucchini's publication became the yardstick for attributions to the artist. As a result, about 119 disputed compositions (including 19 "signed") were attributed to El Greco. Nevertheless, this "over-production" of El Greco's works created a reaction by other scholars. Wethey denied that the Modena triptych had any connection at all with the artist and produced a reactive catalogue raisonné with a greatly reduced corpus of materials in 1962. Whereas art historian José Camón Aznar had attributed between 787 and 829 paintings to the Cretan master, Wethey reduced the number to 285 authentic works and Halldor Sœhner, a German researcher of Spanish art, recognized only 137. Both Wethey and Sœhner divided in their catalogues the works in those painted by El Greco and those produced by his workshop.
Since 1962 the discovery of the Dormition and the extensive archival research has gradually convinced scholarship that Wethey's assessments were not undisputed, and that his catalogue decisions may have distorted the whole nature of El Greco's origins, development and oeuvre. The discovery of the Dormition led to the attributions of other three signed works of "Doménicos" to El Greco (Modena Triptych,St. Luke Painting the Virgin and Child and The Adoration of the Magi) and then to the acceptance as authentic of more works, some signed, some not, which were brought into the group of early works of El Greco. In 2006 another disputed work, The Passion of Christ — Pietà with Angels, has been finally attributed to El Greco. The painting had been photographed just before the signature was removed; Nano Chatzidakis, curator of the British Library exhibition and Professor of Byzantine Art and Archaeology at the University of Ioannina, unearthed the restorer’s photograph.
Nowadays the number of El Greco's works is estimated at about 500. Nevertheless, certain disputes over the exact number of El Greco's authentic works remain unresolved, and the status of Wethey's (still highly esteemed) catalogue is at the centre of these disagreements. Quantitatively, the disagreements are mostly concerned with the end rather than the beginning of his career. It is clear his son continued to sell "El Grecos" for many years after the artists death, and in his later years he had a large workshop who, as with other important artists of the period, produced repetitions of many of his compositions. The identification of these, and deciding how much involvement the master had, if any, in each case, remains unsettled.
These are some of El Greco's most important paintings:
Cretan period (b. 1567)
Italian period (1567-1577)
Spanish period (1577-1614)
El Greco
El Greco was a painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El Greco" was a nickname, a reference to his ethnic Greek origin, and the artist normally signed his paintings with his full birth name in Greek letters, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος .El Greco was born on Crete, which was at...
was a Cretan
Crete
Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...
-born painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
, sculptor and architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
of the Spanish Renaissance
Spanish Renaissance
The Spanish Renaissance refers to a movement in Spain, emerging from the Italian Renaissance in Italy during the 14th century, that spread to Spain during the 15th and 16th centuries...
. El Greco left his birthplace for Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
in 1567 never to return. El Greco's three years in Venice profoundly influenced his style. In 1577 he emigrated to Toledo
Toledo, Spain
Toledo's Alcázar became renowned in the 19th and 20th centuries as a military academy. At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 its garrison was famously besieged by Republican forces.-Economy:...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, where he lived and worked until the end of his life.
El Greco's oeuvre is thus divided in three main periods:
- Works he painted while he was still in Crete
- Works he painted while he was still in Venice and Rome
- Works he painted while he was still in Toledo.
El Greco was mainly a painter but a few sculptures, including Epimetheus and Pandora, have also been attributed to El Greco. This doubtful attribution is based on the testimony of Pacheco. Pacheco saw in El Greco's studio a series of figurines (of wax, stucco, and wood), but these may have been merely models, like those used in the Italian workshops (like the one El Greco himself had created, when he was in Italy). The figures illustrated recall certain nudes in paintings by El Greco in their elongated proportions, but their naturalism and the accentuated musculature of the male figure are regarded by certain researchers as surprising for El Greco. Among the surviving works of the master are also four drawings; three of them are preparatory works for the altarpiece of Santo Domingo el Antiguo and the fourth one is a study for one of his paintings, The Crucifixion.
List of Selected Works
At the time of his death his belonging included 115 paintings, 15 sketches and 150 drawings. In 1908 Manuel B. Cossio, who regarded El Greco's style as a response to Spanish mysticismMysticism
Mysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...
, published the first comprehensive catalogue of El Greco's works. In 1937 a highly influential study by art historian Rodolfo Pallucchini had the effect of greatly increasing the publicly accepted works of El Greco. Palluchini attributed to El Greco a small triptych
Triptych
A triptych , from tri-= "three" + ptysso= "to fold") is a work of art which is divided into three sections, or three carved panels which are hinged together and can be folded shut or displayed open. It is therefore a type of polyptych, the term for all multi-panel works...
in the Galleria Estense
Galleria Estense
The Galleria Estense or Estense Gallery is an art museum in Modena, with mainly Italian and Spanish paintings from the 14th to the 18th century, formed around the collection of the House of Este, rulers of Modena . It is located on the upper floor of the Palazzo dei Musei, on the St. Augustine...
at Modena
Modena
Modena is a city and comune on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy....
on the basis of a signature on the painting on the back of the central panel on the Modena triptych. There was consensus that the triptych was indeed an early work of El Greco and, therefore, Pallucchini's publication became the yardstick for attributions to the artist. As a result, about 119 disputed compositions (including 19 "signed") were attributed to El Greco. Nevertheless, this "over-production" of El Greco's works created a reaction by other scholars. Wethey denied that the Modena triptych had any connection at all with the artist and produced a reactive catalogue raisonné with a greatly reduced corpus of materials in 1962. Whereas art historian José Camón Aznar had attributed between 787 and 829 paintings to the Cretan master, Wethey reduced the number to 285 authentic works and Halldor Sœhner, a German researcher of Spanish art, recognized only 137. Both Wethey and Sœhner divided in their catalogues the works in those painted by El Greco and those produced by his workshop.
Since 1962 the discovery of the Dormition and the extensive archival research has gradually convinced scholarship that Wethey's assessments were not undisputed, and that his catalogue decisions may have distorted the whole nature of El Greco's origins, development and oeuvre. The discovery of the Dormition led to the attributions of other three signed works of "Doménicos" to El Greco (Modena Triptych,St. Luke Painting the Virgin and Child and The Adoration of the Magi) and then to the acceptance as authentic of more works, some signed, some not, which were brought into the group of early works of El Greco. In 2006 another disputed work, The Passion of Christ — Pietà with Angels, has been finally attributed to El Greco. The painting had been photographed just before the signature was removed; Nano Chatzidakis, curator of the British Library exhibition and Professor of Byzantine Art and Archaeology at the University of Ioannina, unearthed the restorer’s photograph.
Nowadays the number of El Greco's works is estimated at about 500. Nevertheless, certain disputes over the exact number of El Greco's authentic works remain unresolved, and the status of Wethey's (still highly esteemed) catalogue is at the centre of these disagreements. Quantitatively, the disagreements are mostly concerned with the end rather than the beginning of his career. It is clear his son continued to sell "El Grecos" for many years after the artists death, and in his later years he had a large workshop who, as with other important artists of the period, produced repetitions of many of his compositions. The identification of these, and deciding how much involvement the master had, if any, in each case, remains unsettled.
These are some of El Greco's most important paintings:
- b. 1565-1566 Dormition of the VirginDormition of the Virgin (El Greco)El Greco painted his Dormition of the Virgin near the end of his Cretan period, probably before 1567. El Greco' signature on the base of the central candelabrum was discovered in 1983. The discovery of the Dormition led to the attribution of three other signed works of "Doménicos" to El Greco El...
- 1566 The Passion of Christ (Pietà with Angels)
- b. 1567 St. Luke Painting the Virgin and Child
- c. 1565-1567 The Adoration of the Magi
- b. 1567-1569 Modena TriptychModena TriptychThe Modena Triptych is 1568 triptych by the artist El Greco, who was also known as Doménikos Theotokópoulos. It is part of the permanent collection at the Historical Museum of Crete....
Italian period (1567-1577)
- c. 1568 Purification of the TempleChrist Driving the Money Changers from the Temple (El Greco, Washington)Christ Driving the Money Changers from the Temple is a 1568 Christian art painting by El Greco, now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, in the United States. It depicts the Cleansing of the Temple, an event in the Life of Christ....
- c. 1567-1570 The Last Supper
- c. 1569-1570 The Entombment of Christ
- c. 1570-1571 Purification of the TempleChrist Driving the Money Changers from the Temple (El Greco, Minneapolis)Christ Driving the Money Changers from the Temple is a 1571 Christian art painting by El Greco, now in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. It depicts the Cleansing of the Temple, an event in the Life of Christ....
- c. 1570 View of Mount Sina
- c. 1571-1572 Portrait of Giulio Clovio
- c. 1571-1572 A Boy Blowing on an Ember to Light a Candle (El Soplón)
- 1572 Charles de Guise
- c. 1572 Christ Healing the Blind
- c. 1576 The Annunciation
- c. 1577 Maria Magdalen in Penitence
- c. 1577-1578 Saint Sebastian
- c. 1577-1579 Assumption of the Virgin
- c. 1577-1579 The Holy Trinity
- c. 1577-1579 The Disrobing of Christ (El Espolio)
- c. 1577-1579 Allegory of the Holly League
- c. 1580 The Ecstasy of St Francis
- c. 1580-1582 The Martyrdom of Saint Maurice
- c. 1580-1582 Saint Peter in Tears
- c. 1582-1586 Saint Mary Magdalene
- c. 1585-1588 Portrait of Rodrigo de la Fuente
- c. 1586-1588 The Burial of the Count of OrgazThe Burial of the Count of OrgazThe Burial of the Count of Orgaz is a painting by El Greco, a painter, sculptor, and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. Widely considered among his finest works, it illustrates a popular local legend of his time. An exceptionally large painting, it is very clearly divided into two sections,...
- c. 1586-1597 Portrait of an Elderly Man
- c. 1587-1596 Saint Peter in Tears
- c. 1587-1596 Veil of Veronica
- c. 1590-1595 Holly Family with Saint Anna
- c. 1590-1595 Saint Andrew and Saint Francis
- c. 1590-1595 Agony in the Garden (several versions, the one in Toledo, OhioToledo, OhioToledo is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Lucas County. Toledo is in northwest Ohio, on the western end of Lake Erie, and borders the State of Michigan...
being accepted as prime. - c. 1595-1600 Portrait of an Old Man (so called self-portrait)
- c. 1596-1600 View of ToledoView of ToledoView of Toledo, is one of the two surviving landscapes painted by El Greco. The other, called View and Plan of Toledo lies at Museo Del Greco, Toledo, Spain....
- c. 1597-1599 Saint Martin and the Beggar
- c. 1597-1599 Saint Joseph and the Christ Child
- c. 1597-1599 Madonna and the Child with Saint Martina and Saint Agnes
- c. 1597-1600 The Annunciation
- c. 1597-1600 Pentecost
- c. 1600 Portrait of Antonio de Covarrubias
- c. 1600-1601 Portrait of Cardinal Nino de Guevara
- c. 1600-1605 The Repentant St. Peter, Phillips CollectionPhillips CollectionThe Phillips Collection is an art museum founded by Duncan Phillips in 1921 as the Phillips Memorial Gallery located in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Phillips was the grandson of James H...
- c. 1600-1605 Saint Ildefonso
- c. 1600-1605 Crucifixion
- c. 1600-1605 Resurrection
- c. 1600-1605 Portrait of Jorge Manuel Theotocopoulos
- c. 1600-1605 Apostolado series, ie Christ and the Twelve Apostles in thirteen half-length portraits. Many versions, with one in Toledo Cathedral accepted as largely by El Greco himself.
- c. 1600-1607 Saint Judas Thaddaeus
- c. 1600-1610 Saint Jerome as Cardinal - five versions, those in the Frick and Metropolitan being generally accepted as prime. Also Madrid, London.
- c. 1600-1614 Purification of the Temple Several versions: London, Frick, Madrid.
- c. 1606-1607 Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist
- c. 1603 The Annunciation
- c. 1603-1605 Coronation of the Virgin, Royal Monastery of Guadalupe (Spain).
- c. 1603-1605 Madonna of Charity
- c. 1605 Saint Peter
- c. 1607 Saint Mary Magdalene
- c. 1607-1613 Virgin of the Immaculate Conception
- c. 1607-1614 The Visitation
- c. 1608-1614 The Immaculate Conception
- c. 1608-1614 View and Plan of Toledo
- c. 1608-1614 Concert of Angels
- 1609 Portrait of Fray Hortensio Félix Paravacino
- c. 1609-1614 Portrait of Cardinal Tavera
- c. 1609-1614 Opening of the Fifth SealOpening of the Fifth SealThe Opening of the Fifth Seal was painted in the last years of El Greco's life for a side-altar of the church of Saint John the Baptist outside the walls of Toledo. Before 1908 El Greco's painting was referred to as Profane Love...
(The Fifth Seal of the Apocalypse The Vision of Saint John) - c. 1609-1614 The Annunciation
- c. 1610-1614 Laocoön
- c. 1610-1614 Apostolado series, unfinished at his death
- c. 1612-1614 The Adoration of the ShepherdsThe Adoration of the Shepherds (El Greco)The Adoration of the Shepherds is a painting of the traditional subject which was painted during the last year of El Greco's life. The painting is a smaller version of a work which the artist made to hang over his own tomb in the church of Santo Domingo el Antiguo in Toledo...