El Greco
1541-1614
El Greco's Close-up
-His work during his later work idealism became a big part of it. He painted lots of Holy figures and strived them look like the perfect figure. Also perspectivism, El Greco put a lot of shadowing and depth into his paintings. This make everything have a more humanlike feel to it.
-His main patrons were churches because he rarely strayed from religious subjects and portraits-El Greco was a painter; Christ Carrying the Cross, Fifth Seal of the Apocalypse, and Adoration of the Shepherds
-His lifestyle was not really prominent, It was mostly devoted to studying and painting.
- He became a pupil of Titan, greatest painter of the time, then joined painters acedemy in Rome and later established a studio
- He spent most of his life in Toledo, Spain… however he traveled a lot, also spending time also in Venice and Rome.
Christ driving the Traders from the Temple
-today this painting is held in The National Gallery, in London
- The piece resembles Jesus about to crack the whip, get serious, on the traders who enclosed on their holy ground. On one side of the photo you can see the apostles and on the other the traders. There are many people in the painting and looks like it is a hectic time.
-Idealism; all of the people in the painting itself represent a perfect human figure
-Perspectivism; the shadowing along with the foreground and background idea of the painting gives it a 3-dimensional look.
- I find this piece interesting because El Greco really enjoyed showing foreground as well as background, and even though the main painting is based in the foreground there are still many details in the landscape and background. El Greco payed close attention to all of the specific details. All the way to lines on the wood tables, cracks in the stone, and clouds in the sky.
-Something different about this painting is how Christ is shown acting in violence, in the vast majority this was not the case
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Enjoyable Fact!
Works Cited
"El Greco." Encyclopedia of World Biography. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Biography in Context. Web. 3 Dec. 2015.
The Biography.com Editors. "El Greco Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2015.
Theotokopoulos, Domenikos. Boy Blowing on an Ember. 1570. Oil on a canvas. Museum and National Galleries of Capodimonte.
Theotokopoulos, Domenikos. Christ driving the Traders from the Temple. 1600. Oil on canvas. The National Gallery, London.