Around 1540 -1620 · Devotion, court portrait and vision of El Greco

Spanish mannerism transforms Italian elegance into spiritual intensity: elongated bodies, unreal light and collected faces respond to the court and the Catholic Reformation.

In the mid-16th century, Spanish painting received Italian innovations through travel, prints, royal collections and the presence of foreign artists. The term mannerism here covers several responses. In Valencia, Juan de Juanes combines the clarity of Raphael with precise devotion, adapted to altarpieces and the Eucharistic image. In Extremadura, Luis de Morales tightens Virgin, Christ and Pietà in small formats where emotion becomes almost tactile. At the court of Philip II, Alonso Sanchez Coello organizes the portrait by frontality, black costume, jewel and rigorous ceremonial distance. Doménikos Theotokopoulos, known as El Greco, arrives in Toledo in 1577 after Crete, Venice and Rome. It pushes further the elongation, the unstable perspectives, the cold color and the interior light. Resurrection, Expolio, saints and portraits seem to belong simultaneously to the material world and to a vision. Far from being a simple copy of Italy, Spanish mannerism adapts the mania to the expectations of a court society, ecclesiastical orders and a culture of intense meditation. The "Spanish Mannerism" selection notably compares The Resurrection of Christ and Portrait of Infanta Catherine-Michelle. His reading favors composition.

In Spain, the maniera does not only seek virtuosity: it gives the portrait discipline and the religious image a tension of presence.