Works of El Greco

El Greco was a Cretan-born painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. El Greco left his birthplace for Venice in 1567 never to return. El Greco's three years in Venice profoundly influenced his style. In 1577 he emigrated to Toledo, Spain, where he lived and worked until the end of his life.

El Greco's oeuvre is thus divided in three main periods:
* Works he painted while he was still in Crete
* Works he painted while he was still in Venice and Rome
* Works he painted while he was still in Toledo.

El Greco was mainly a painter but a few sculptures, including "Epimetheus and Pandora", have also been attributed to El Greco.X. de Salas, "The Velazquez Exhibition in Madrid", 54-57] This doubtful attribution is based on the testimony of Pacheco. Pacheco saw in El Greco's studio a series of figurineso (of wax, stucco, and wood), but these may have been merely models, like those used in the Italian workshops (like the one El Greco himself had created, when he was in Italy). The figures illustrated recall certain nudes in paintings by El Greco in their elongated proportions, but their naturalism and the accentuated musculature of the male figure are regarded by certain researchers as surprising for El Greco.Web Gallery of Art, [http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/g/greco_el/24/2405grec.html Epimetheus and Pandora] ] Among the surviving works of the master are also four drawings;The Guardian, [http://arts.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,845903,00.html El Greco Drawings Could Fetch £400,000] ] three of them are preparatory works for the altarpiece of Santo Domingo el Antiguo and the fourth one is a study for one of his paintings, "The Crucifixion".Web Gallery of Art, [http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/g/greco_el/23/index.html Study for St John the Evangelist and an Angel] ]

List of Selected Works

At the time of his death his belonging included 115 paintings, 15 sketches and 150 drawings. In 1908 Manuel B. Cossio, who regarded El Greco's style as a response to Spanish mysticism, published the first comprehensive catalogue of El Greco's works. In 1937 a highly influential study by art historian Rodolfo Pallucchini had the effect of greatly increasing the publicly accepted works of El Greco. Palluchini attributed to El Greco a small triptych in the Galleria Estense at Modena on the basis of a signature on the painting on the back of the central panel on the Modena triptych. There was consensus that the triptych was indeed an early work of El Greco and, therefore, Pallucchini's publication became the yardstick for attributions to the artist.] As a result, about 119 disputed compositions (including 19 "signed") were attributed to El Greco. Nevertheless, this "over-production" of El Greco's works created a reaction by other scholars.M. Tazartes, "El Greco", 70-71] Wethey denied that the Modena triptych had any connection at all with the artist and produced a reactive catalogue raisonné with a greatly reduced corpus of materials in 1962. Whereas art historian José Camón Aznar had attributed between 787 and 829 paintings to the Cretan master, Wethey reduced the number to 285 authentic works and Halldor Sœhner, a German researcher of Spanish art, recognized only 137.Cormack-Vassilaki, [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0PAL/is_522_162/ai_n15950295/pg_1 The Baptism of Christ]
* M. Tazartes, "El Greco", 70] Both Wethey and Sœhner divided in their catalogues the works in those painted by El Greco and those produced by his workshop.

Since 1962 the discovery of the "Dormition" and the extensive archival research has gradually convinced scholarship that Wethey's assessements were not undisputed, and that his catalogue decisions may have distorted the whole nature of El Greco's origins, development and oeuvre. The discovery of the "Dormition" led to the attributions of other three signed works of "Doménicos" to El Greco ("Modena Triptych","St. Luke Painting the Virgin and Child" and "The Adoration of the Magi") and then to the acceptance as authentic of more works, some signed, some not, which were brought into the group of early works of El Greco. In 2006 another disputed work, "The Passion of Christ — Pietà with Angels", has been finally attributed to El Greco. The painting had been photographed just before the signature was removed; Nano Chatzidakis, curator of the British Library exhibition and Professor of Byzantine Art and Archaeology at the University of Ioannina, unearthed the restorer’s photograph.D. Alberge, [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-2326011,00.html Collector Is Vindicated as Icon is Hailed as El Greco] ]

Nowadays the number of El Greco's works is [http://www.interkriti.org/culture/elgreco/ estimated] at about 500. Nevertheless, certain disputes over the exact number of El Greco's authentic works remain unresolved, and the status of Wethey's (still highly esteemed) catalogue is at the centre of these disagreements. Quantitatively, the disagreements are mostly concerned with the end rather than the beginning of his career. It is clear his son continued to sell "El Grecos" for many years after the artists death, and in his later years he had a large workshop who, as with other important artists of the period, produced repetitions of many of his compositions. The identification of these, and deciding how much involvement the master had, if any, in each case, remains unsettled.

These are some of El Greco's most important paintings:

Cretan period (b. 1567)
* b. 1565-1566 "Dormition of the Virgin"
* 1566 " "The Passion of Christ (Pietà with Angels)"
* b. 1567 "St. Luke Painting the Virgin and Child"
* c. 1565-1567 "The Adoration of the Magi"
* b. 1567-1569 "Modena Triptych"

Italian period (1567-1577)

* c. 1567-1570 "The Last Supper"
* c. 1569-1570 "The Entombment of Christ"
* c. 1570-1571 "Purification of the Temple"
* c. 1570 "View of Mount Sina"
* c. 1571-1572 "Portrait of Giulio Clovio"'
* c. 1571-1572 "A Boy Blowing on an Ember to Light a Candle (El Soplón)"
* 1572 "Charles de Guise"
* c. 1572 "Christ Healing the Blind"
* c. 1576 "The Annunciation"

Spanish period (1577-1614)
* c. 1577 "Maria Magdalen in Penitence"
* c. 1577-1578 "Saint Sebastian"
* c. 1577-1579 "Assumption of the Virgin"
* c. 1577-1579 "The Holy Trinity "
* c. 1577-1579 "The Disrobing of Christ (El Espolio)"
* c. 1577-1579 "Allegory of the Holly League"
* c. 1580-1582 "The Martyrdrom of Saint Maurice"
* c. 1580-1582 "Saint Peter in Tears"
* c. 1582-1586 "Saint Mary Magdalene"
* c. 1585-1588 "Portrait of Rodrigo de la Fuente"
* c. 1586-1588 "The Burial of the Count of Orgaz"
* c. 1586-1597 "Portrait of an Elderly Man"
* c. 1587-1596 "Saint Peter in Tears"
* c. 1587-1596 "Veil of Veronica"
* c. 1590-1595 "Holly Family with Saint Anna"
* c. 1590-1595 "Saint Andrew and Saint Francis"
* c. 1590-1595 "Agony in the Garden" (several versions, the one in Toledo, Ohio being accepted as prime.
* c. 1595-1600 "Portrait of an Old Man (so called self-portrait)"
* c. 1596-1600 "View of Toledo"
* c. 1597-1599 "Saint Martin and the Beggar"
* c. 1597-1599 "Saint Joseph and the Christ Child"
* c. 1597-1599 "Madonna and the Child with Saint Martina and Saint Agnes"
* c. 1597-1600 "The Annunciation"
* c. 1597-1600 "Pentecost"
* c. 1600 "Portrait of Antonio de Covarrubias"
* c. 1600-1601 "Portrait of Cardinal Nino de Guevara"
* c. 1600-1605 "Saint Ildefonso"
* c. 1600-1605 "Crucifixion"
* c. 1600-1605 "Resurrection"
* c. 1600-1605 "Portrait of Jorge Manuel Theotocopoulos"
* c. 1600-1605 "Apostolado" series, ie Christ and the Twelve Apostles in thirteen half-length portraits. Many versions, with one in Toledo Cathedral accepted as largely by El Greco himself.
* c. 1600-1607 "Saint Judas Thaddaeus"
* c. 1600-1610 "Saint Jerome as Cardinal" - five versions, those in the Frick and Metropolitan being generally accepted as prime. Also Madrid, London.
* c. 1600-1614 "Purification of the Temple" Several versions: London, Frick, Madrid.
* c. 1606-1607 "Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist"
* c. 1603 "The Annunciation"
* c. 1603-1605 "Coronation of the Virgin", Royal Monastery of Guadalupe (Spain).
* c. 1603-1605 "Madonna of Charity"
* c. 1605 "Saint Peter"
* c. 1607 "Saint Mary Magdalene"
* c. 1607-1613 "Virgin of the Immaculate Conception"
* c. 1607-1614 "The Visitation"
* c. 1608-1614 "The Immaculate Conception"
* c. 1608-1614 "View and Plan of Toledo"
* c. 1608-1614 "Concert of Angels"
* 1609 "Portrait of Fray Hortensio Félix Paravacino"
* c. 1609-1614 "Portrait of Cardinal Tavera"
* c. 1609-1614 "Opening of the Fifth Seal ("The Fifth Seal of the Apocalypse" "The Vision of Saint John")
* c. 1609-1614 "The Annunciation"
* c. 1610-1614 "Laocoön"
* c. 1610-1614 "Apostolado" series, unfinished at his death
* c. 1612-1614 "The Adoration of the Shepherds"

References

External links

* cite web
title = El Greco: Biography and works
url = http://homepages.pathfinder.gr/asp1961/elgreco.html