Discovery Of El Greco

Originally published in Dutch and translated to Spanish for the fourth centenary celebration of the death of El Greco in 2014, this book is a comprehensive study of the rediscovery of El Greco -- seen as one of the most important events of its kind in art history. The Nationalization of Culture versus the Rise of Modern Art analyses how changes in artistic taste in the second half of the nineteenth century caused a profound revision of the place of El Greco in the artistic canon. As a result, El Greco was transformed from an extravagant outsider and a secondary painter into the founder of the Spanish School and one of the principle predecessors of modern art, increasingly related to that of the Impressionists -- due primarily to the German critic Julius Meier-Graefe's influential History of Modern Art (1914). This shift in artistic preference has been attributed to the rise of modern art but Eric Storm, a cultural historian, shows that in the case of El Greco nationalist motives were even more important. This study examines the work of painters, art critics, writers, scholars and philosophers from France, Germany and Spain, and the role of exhibitions, auctions, monuments and commemorations. Paintings and associated anecdotes are discussed, and historical debates such as El Greco's supposed astigmatism are addressed in a highly readable and engaging style. This book will be of interest to both specialists and the interested art public.

In 2014, to mark the four-hundredth anniversary of El Greoc's death and the appeal of his art in America, major museums mounted exhibitions of paintings which came to their collections as a result of "Grecomaia", a collecting trend seemingly inspired by Knoedler Gallery's exhibition of the artist's work, in 1904. The Frick Collection's symposium focused on the development of American collectors' taste for El Greco's works.

The sensational oeuvre of El Greco (1541-1614) was first introduced to a broader German audience in 1910 through Julius Meier-Graefe's journal, "The Spanish Journey". Numerous artists subsequently caught "Greco fever" when they first saw larger groups of his works in exhibitions in Munich in 1911 and Düsseldorf in 1912. Max Beckmann, Oskar Kokoschka, Max Oppenheimer, Ludwig Meidner, and especially members of the Blaue Reiter-August Macke, Franz Marc, Albert Bloch, and others-recognized in El Greco a father figure for the Modernist movement, mentioning him in the same breath as Paul Cézanne. This volume presents a general selection of over forty paintings by El Greco from the most famous museums around the world. At the same time, the young artists' exploration of the paintings and visual spheres of the exceptional Spanish painter are discussed, opening up a fascinating view of the battle for Modernism. 0Exhibition: Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf, Germany (28.4.-12.8.2012).

Looks at the full range of the sixteenth century artist's work in painting and sculpture, from his Byzantine icons to his late altarpieces.

Art and the Religious Image in El Greco’s Italy is the first book-length examination of the early career of one of the early modern period’s most notoriously misunderstood figures. Born around 1541, Domenikos Theotokopoulos began his career as an icon painter on the island of Crete. He is best known, under the name “El Greco,” for the works he created while in Spain, paintings that have provoked both rapt admiration and scornful disapproval since his death in 1614. But the nearly ten years he spent in Venice and Rome, from 1567 to 1576, have remained underexplored until now. Andrew Casper’s examination of this period allows us to gain a proper understanding of El Greco’s entire career and reveals much about the tumultuous environment for religious painting after the Council of Trent. Art and the Religious Image in El Greco’s Italy is a new book in the Art History Publication Initiative (AHPI), a collaborative grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Thanks to the AHPI grant, this book will be available in popular e-book formats.

Provides a unique insight into El Greco's paintings of the landscape and monuments of Toledo.Particular atteneion is paid to El Greco's works: 'The Burial of the Count of Orgaz' and 'El Esplolio'. One section is devoted to El Greco's house and museum, which are regarded as great treasures of Toledo.

The bold and unusual religious paintings of the Spanish artist El Greco (c. 1541–1614) have aroused widespread interest and wonder, yet little has been known about the artist's patrons. This is a comprehensive study of the several individuals who financed, encouraged and influenced El Greco's extraordinary artistic endeavours. Mann reconstructs the lives of several of the artist's patrons and demonstrates how El Greco's pictorial ensemble reflected the patrons' concerns. Thus the actual context of El Greco's work is established. The book indicates that the artist's patrons helped to shape both the style and iconography of the paintings, and clarifies the precise nature of the connection between the paintings and Spanish mysticism. In studying the purposes and meaning of El Greco's religious paintings, the author thereby provides the basis for an alternative interpretation of the artist's work and presents many insights into life in sixteenth-century Spain.