El Greco made the painting that I will discuss today. Although he is not an Italian painter, I like his approach to Mannerism in his work. The fact that he studied these techniques in Italy counts towards the same movement, I believe.
The scene represents the miracle that, according to tradition, San Esteban and San Agustin performed together. They descended from the heavens to bury Gonzalo Ruiz de Toledo. He was the lord of the Orgad villa and had an honorable life that the saints wanted to award.
It is a wonderful array of all the mannerist techniques that El Greco had on his sleeve. The dreadful and elongated bodies, almost impossible foreshortenings, brilliant colors that tasted sour. The light gets bent at will, casting exaggerated shadows to bring up the contrast with the more light planes. Almost all the light comes from above, but in the terrenal plane, the clothes shine a light on the scene. This was slowly curated in his later years as a painter, and his style shines in this piece.
We must not forget the important role of eye and facial expressions in Mannerism. The slowly accumulated tension in the muscles before it finally erupts into the complete feeling is prevalent in this scene. A second before the child starts to cry, the dreadful eyes that seem to have the owner out of reality before they snap to the present again...
The composition is divided into two sections, the terrenal plane and the celestial plane. The church gave him very detailed instructions on representing the terrenal plane that he followed to perfection.
However, he had more personal liberties to represent the celestial plane, the colors do not match reality, and as a consequence of Mannerism, there is almost no depth in the scene. This makes it impossible to see the floor or the background where the characters are displayed. In addition, it makes it very hard to discern whether the scene is indoors or outdoors.
The composition can be approached from an architectural point of view. The knights represent the arch's columns, the triangular front of the porch made by the saints, and death right at the feet of the door.
El Greco was commissioned to do this painting with such attention to detail as an attempt of the catholic church to create an anachronism between the characters that model the scene (all Spanish nobility) and the real burial attendees 200 years before the painting. A direct response from the Catholics towards the reformation.
Hi Marina, thanks for sharing! I quite enjoyed your analysis, especially of the emotions of the subjects, as this is a very emotive scene. In regard to this piece, I find the depth quite appealing and it adds great contrast. Also, the provided background from this time period helped me understand the painting further. Of all the details, my favorite would have to be the use of light and how the artist uses it to enhance the contrasting effect throughout the painting. Great work!
ReplyDeleteMarina,
ReplyDeleteI'm quite familiar with some of El Greco's famous artwork. The colors of the images in the artwork bring a lot of detail to the figures that are depicted. There is apparent contrast between the images of figures that's highlighted by the application of light and dark backgrounds. The use of oil in this painting by El Greco was no different than many of paintings that were produced during the Italian Renaissance. Lastly, like El Greco, Leonardo Da Vinci was commissioned to paint his famous "The Last Supper" masterpiece of Jesus and the disciples, which utilized space to highlight particular individuals.