The Pieta

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El Greco (“The Greek”), also known as Domenicos Theotocopulos, was a painter, sculptor, and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. El Greco was born in Crete in 1541, which was then a part of the Republic of Venice, and the center of Post-Byzantine art. He had trained and become a master within that tradition and an icon painter. Among his great artworks, I would like to draw attention to “Pietà (The Lamentation of Christ)”, an oil painting. El Greco had painted this masterpiece about c.1565-70 in Italy, during the Cretan period.

El Greco, at the age of 26, like other Greek artists had travelled to Venice and came under the influence of Titian and Tintoretto. During his stay in Italy, he widened his style with aspects of Mannerism and Venetian Renaissance. He then went down to Rome (about 1570) where he opened a workshop. Later in 1577, he moved to Toledo, Spain, where he spent the rest of his life. In order to differentiate himself from his contemporaries, El Greco invented new and unusual interpretations of religious subject matters. The artist’s serious, lifelong attraction to religious subjects, lead him to the creation of his trademark elongated figures and vibrant atmospheric lights (Jordan 16).

Michelangelo and Raphael were dead when El Greco arrived in Rome, but their example continued to be dominant and left little room for modernization. Although the legacies of these great masters were irresistible, El Greco was determined to make his own mark in Rome. Even though El Greco had dismissed Michelangelo, where he offered to Pope Pius V to paint over the Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel, he couldn’t avoid Michelangelo’s influences in his paintings. His works were outstanding from his contemporaries due to their dramat...

... middle of paper ...

...fs. I chose this painting because it was one of his first works where he uses his skills of mannerism and Venetian aspect of colors. In this painting El Greco expressed the grief and sorrow of the scene in such a manner that regardless of the painting not being very clear it still imprints a vivid image on the viewer. This painting didn’t receive as much appreciation as it should have.

Works Cited

• Jordan, Patrick. "TRANSFIGURATIONS: El Greco at the Met." Commonweal 130.21 (2003): 16-7. ProQuest Research Library. Web. 13 Mar. 2012.

(http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy2.library.drexel.edu/pqrl/docview/210392387/fulltextPDF?accountid=10559)

• Web Gallery of Art

(http://www.wga.hu/html_m/g/greco_el/03/0309grec.html)

• Artcyclopedia

(http://www.artcyclopedia.com/history/mannerism.html)

• ChristRing Ministries

(http://christring.org/shortseries/Symbolism.htm)

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