El Greco: Identity and Transformation [Hardcover]

Jose Alvarez Lopera (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1999

280 illustrations

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Italian

Product Details

• Hardcover: 456 pages
• Publisher: Skira (July 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 8881184745
• ISBN-13: 978-8881184743
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 9.9 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,029,612 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

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6 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 3 countries and 3 painting traditions, December 28, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: El Greco: Identity and Transformation (Hardcover)

"Dormition of the Virgin" was the first Byzantine-styled work that experts have all agreed was done by Domenikos Theotokopoulos, known to us by his EL GRECO IDENTITY AND TRANSFORMATION from his Cretan birthplace- and Greek Orthodox-influenced art to his travels in Italy and last home in Spain: the decision to become the first Cretan painter to deep-dive into imported Venetian styles and Western European art values can be guessed by rebel elements within the painting, with Christ's body curved instead of upright; the Divine Glory warmly instead of coldly lighted around the Holy Ghost; Mannerist gesturing angels and posturing Virgin, along with Italian Renaissance caryatid-adorned bronze candelabra; and the painter's signature atypically part of the composition and pulling in the participle deixas from Lucian's book on the great ancient sculptor Phidias. "Adoration of the Magi" showed how the pull on him from his Byzantine Cretan heritage and the years of Venetian rule at first hurt his early art, jarred here by curvingly sculptural forms for the Virgin and Child, elongated Mannerist bodies for the black and kneeling kings, and robust muscling for the soldier. But "Allegory of the coronation of the Christian knight" proved that he could bring the two influences nicely together, as an expert Mannerist throwing contorted bodies into an explosion of color and light and a whirlwind of movement; and as a skilled Orthodox miniaturist giving 3-D cast to tiny forms. "Burial of Christ" was typical of his first works once in Venice: keeping in Greek-type gesticulating hands, serious air, and spiritual intensity, he nevertheless based composition on other artists' prints, with Christ, the two men laying the body in the tomb, and the hill cave from a print by Giovanni Battista Franco; and with the group of the Three Marys from a print by one of his favorite artists, Francesco Mazzola, known as Il Parmigianino. If "Portrait of Charles de Guise, Cardinal de Lorraine" was really one of his Italian works, he only got the credit in the last quarter of the twentieth-century: before 1978, the artist was believed to be Tintoretto, Venetian Mannerist master of affected poses, lines not forming right triangles, rippled clothing folds, and twisted figures. Another art type that he mastered during his Italian years was his proto-Georges de la Tour-type "Boy lighting a candle": it was the first time that an everyday scene and a close-up, detailed study of a face lighted by one light source within a picture of shadows stood on its own in Italian art. In the end, he carried his knowledge of Venetian landscaping and mapmaking traditions to Spain, where he was unique as master of pure landscape painting: "View of Toledo" gave a true view from the north of the city's most important aspects, namely the Alcazar, Alcantara bridge, and Castle of San Servando; it also had a black, radiantly powerful storm distort the area and set up a most hallucinating atmosphere, changed locations of such real buildings as the cathedral tower, and threw in such totally made-up places as houses under the castle and at the end of the bridge road. As a result, the painting has been groundbreaking in many areas of art exprssion: emblematic for defending the city's glories against having lost its claim as capital, Giorgione-type emotional, mystical, Pieter Brueghel-type panoramic, proto-Expressionist. In Spain, his most beautiful, lyrical, spiritualized achievements were probably "Annunciation," now in Madrid's Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza: light effects and vibrant coloring modeled figures and drew viewers deep into the beautifully supernatural picture space. "Immaculate conception" was his last beautiful, lyrical painting: once thought to be an Assumption because of upward movement, the composition worked around an upward spiral drawing viewers inevitably to the Virgin's face and the dove of the Holy Spirit on top; an angel pushing or supporting Mary upward, blazingly contoured color and light, elegantly elongated angels on the side, and small torsos in comparison to legs in flight also helped to pull viewing eyes up. During his last years, El Greco might have been the painter of an unfinished Apostle series discovered in Guadalajara province during the Spanish Civil War: "St James Minor" has been called the finest of them all, proto-Vincent Van Gogh-like in fixedly expressive figure, independent drawing, and tightly held-up head. So Jose Alvarez Lopera has edited an impressively illustrated, logically organized, well-written book that, along with EL GRECO by Mike Venezia, EL GRECO & FERNANDO ARRABAL, EL GRECO IN TOLEDO by Fernando Marias, and FROM EL GRECO TO GOYA by Janis Tomlinson, should leave readers current on El Greco's life in and art styles from three important art-producing countries.