1541 -1614 · mannerism, Toledo and spiritual vision

El Greco unites the tradition of the Cretan icon, Venetian color and Mannerist space in visions of Toledo where elongated figures, cold light and spiritual fervor abolish the limits of reality.

Domenikos Theotokopoulos, known as El Greco, was born in 1541 in Candia, today Heraklion, in then Venetian Crete. Trained as an icon painter in the Byzantine tradition, he mastered a language based on frontality, gold and sacred presence. Around 1567, he left for Venice, where Titian's color, Tintoretto's compositions and Western lighting effects transformed his practice. In Rome from 1570, he left for Venice, where the color of Titian, the compositions of Tintoretto and Western lighting effects transformed his practice. In Rome from 1570, he frequented the circle of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese and studied Michelangelo as well as mannerism. He finally settled in Toledo in 1577. The city, religious and intellectual center of Spain, offered him altarpieces, portraits and private commissions, even if his connections with some sponsors remain difficult. El Greco then develops an unparalleled language. Bodies lengthen, draperies fragment into shards, hands speak and vertical space seems to suck figures towards a supernatural light. In Christ carrying the cross, the raised gaze and slender fingers detach physical suffering from narrative agitation to produce an image of meditation. The Resurrection transforms the soldiers and Christ into an ascending whirlwind. His Annunciations unite flame, cloud and color to make visible the irruption of the divine. The Resurrection transforms the soldiers and Christ into an ascending whirlwind. His Annunciations unite flame, cloud and color to make visible the irruption of the divine. The Resurrection transforms the soldiers and Christ into an ascending whirlwind. His Annunciations unite flame, cloud and color to make visible the irruption of the divine. View of Toledo, one of the rare autonomous landscapes of Spanish painting of his time, does not copy slavishly topography: stormy skies, green hills and displaced monuments compose the spiritual portrait of a city. El Greco ran a workshop with his son Jorge Manuel and received important Toledan commissions until his death in 1614. Long considered strange, its distortions fascinated modern artists and critics, from Delacroix to Picasso. A faithful reproduction must preserve the slender proportions, the acidic greens, the nocturnal blues, the electric whites, the flexibility of the hands and the tension between earthly matter and spiritual light. The selection "Masterpieces of El Greco" notably compares The Annunciation - El Greco and View of Toledo - El Greco. His reading favors light.

El Greco does not distort the world to distance it from reality: he stretches body, city and light in order to make visible a spiritual intensity that appearance alone is not enough to grasp.