El Greco, painting "The Burial of Count Orgaz": description, interesting facts and reviews

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Domenikos Theotokopoulos (1541-1614) was a Spanish painter of Greek origin. In Spain, he received the nickname El Greco, that is, the Greek. Not a single portrait has been preserved, of which it can be said with certainty that this is El Greco. All of them are only conjectural.

Some information about the artist

He was born on about. Crete and at first painted Orthodox icons, which undoubtedly left an imprint on the style of his work. Then he studied in Italy, which at that time was losing the harmony of the Renaissance and losing the connection between the spiritual and the physical.

At 35, he moved to the Iberian Peninsula. By this time his style had been worked out. It was impossible to compare him at all with any painter of either early or late times. He is the one and only. There were no repetitions.

In Toledo, having already lived ten years in Spain, El Greco will write a completely original and extraordinary work. This is the painting "The Burial of Count Orgaz" (1586). The work was commissioned by the Church of Sao Tome, in which the painter himself was a parishioner. And the customerhis friend, the priest of this church, Andres Nunez, spoke.

El Greco, "The Burial of Count Orgas": description of the painting

The plot of the commissioned work is unusual. Don Ruiz Gonzalo de Toledo, Count of Orgaz himself, died in 1323. He made rich donations to the church where he was buried, and after his death a legend of a miracle arose. The pious count, according to this story, was lowered into the coffin by St. Augustine and St. Stephen. An entry about this is carved on a stone slab, which is located under the picture.

We are just beginning to describe the work "The Burial of Count Orgaz", which has monumental dimensions. It is about five meters high and close to four meters wide.

Composition of Heaven painting

There is an assumption that it is associated with the icon "Assumption of the Virgin", which was painted by El Greco around 1567. The picture of the count's funeral is clearly divided into two zones, in each of which miracles occur. Below, in the earthly part, the body of the deceased count is carefully supported on the left by the young St. Stephen in the vestments of a deacon, and on the right - St. Augustine in the robes of a bishop.

The soul of the count, likened to a light exhalation, is lifted up to heaven through the parting clouds by an angel, and there she is met by Jesus Christ himself, who is in the center of the image and is the peak and Light of the world, to the right of which is the figure of the Mother of God, and to the left - John the Baptist. This group is oval in shape.

On the right this linepasses through two saints, located just above John the Baptist and dressed in a bright orange cloak (James) and a blue chiton (Paul). Left St. Peter with two keys does not fit into this oval. But Christ points to him with his hand to open the gates for the count's soul. The ghostly images of Cardinal Tavera and King Philip II are in the waves of clouds. On the left is King David with a harp in his hands, Moses with the tablets of the Covenant and Noah. The whole host of saints, righteous people and martyrs, written in an surreal, ethereal, Byzantine style, is seen only by the priest, who looked up. Thus is the burial of Count Orgas in the underworld.

Composition of the earthly world

If the upper part of the canvas leads the spirit to higher spheres, then the lower part is real enough. The mournful burial of Count Orgas and his transition to another world are accompanied by quite real people - nobles, clergy and monks (Dominican and Franciscan). These are portraits of the artist's contemporaries.

On the right in the foreground, holding a prayer book, stands the priest Andres Nunez. We see him in profile. The second priest is dressed in a surplice, thin and transparent, which echoes in color with the upper part of the composition. It is he who connects the earthly and heavenly worlds, which was revealed to him alone, and from which he does not take his eyes off. The page boy is the painter's son. He points with his hand to the viewer at the saints, who seem not to be noticed by the people participating in the ceremony. The child connects two worlds - the painted picture and the external, real, earthly one. These two figures - the child and the priest -key in the composition.

The burial of the Count of Orgaz, accompanied by a miracle, is embraced by the unity that the Spanish nobles feel with restraint. Their faces are outwardly impassive, but they all seem to be fenced off from the outside world with its temptations. Their experiences are expressed in refined pale faces with closed lips and restrained movements of their graceful hands. It is assumed that not only real Toledo nobles are written here, but also El Greco himself. His face looks directly at the viewer. It is to him that the raised hand above the head of St. Stephen.

There are no specific signs of the scene on the canvas. And the general light comes from nowhere, it is just spilled at the bottom of the picture. Even funeral torches do not cast reflections. The very burial of Count Orgas El Greco made in the form of an oval. It is formed by the figures of saints. This is the compositional and color center of the lower part. At the same time, in relation to the upper oval, it is shifted to the left. The very images of saints embody the highest spiritual beauty. This is how El Greco's painting "The Burial of Count Orgaz" is gradually described.

Colour

It is all built on a solemn and mournful fusion of black, silver-gray and golden cold tones. Red, black, blue and yellow accents stand out. But even the golden robes of the saints do not carry warmth. Torches also shine coldly, one of which almost touches the wing of an angel in a cold yellow robe with greenish reflections. It is as if inflated by the wind, which raises it into the heavenly spheres. The whole transcendental world is filled with dense, but at the same timetranslucent, with hard edges, grayish-silver clouds. They play a variety of shades from black-gray to cold, soft bluish.

Brightly stand out only the whitening figure of Jesus, going into the golden depths, large painted John the Baptist and a scarlet dress with a blue cloak of Mary. She, lowering her hand, touches the translucent veil in which the count's soul is wrapped, and meets her like a mother. This is how El Greco wrote The Burial of Count Orgaz. The description cannot convey how the artist connected the real and sublime worlds in the picture.

How contemporaries perceived the painting

The altarpiece created by El Greco delighted the people of Toledo. After all, the canvas tells about the mystery of crossing the threshold of death, that at this time a person is not alone: he is helped by the redeemer Jesus Christ, his Mother, who is also our Mother, and all the saints in heaven are our elder brothers. Everyone came to admire the wonderful huge canvas, on which they recognized prominent citizens, aristocrats, and priests. Even foreigners came to the city just to see this piece.

The artist carefully thought out how to connect the canvas with the interior of a small church, and it is organically built into it. The glory of El Greco has grown incredibly. He was at her zenith. His other works were taken outside the city and Spain, but this one never left the modest church, which was once rebuilt from a mosque afterfinal expulsion of the Moors. True, the picture was removed for some time, and it was in the storerooms of the church. But then she was exposed again. Now a backlight has been made for it, and it has been blocked with bars.

Interesting facts related to the painting

The painting by El Greco "The Burial of Count Orgaz", which was described in the article, has several strange stories associated with it:

• Señor Orgaz left a will after his death, according to which the inhabitants had to pay a tax for the improvement of the church. His will was not carried out. A court case arose, which ended with the fact that the money for the temple was received. Having them, the priesthood made an order for painting by the artist El Greco.
• The painter received clear instructions on what exactly should be depicted: the very legend about the participation of saints in the mournful ceremony and portraits of famous citizens. The canvas should completely cover one of the walls of the church. The master managed to do everything without constraining himself as a creator.



• The portraits depict not only local aristocrats, but also the parish priest, and the artist's son, and presumably himself and members of the military-religious order (they have red crosses on their clothes).
• The painting was appreciated not only by contemporaries, but the artist himself considered it his highest achievement.
• Pay, however, did not match either the artistic qualities or the thoroughness of the detailed execution of the order and was low - only one thousand two hundred ducats.

Reviews from tourists who visited Toledo

Russiantourists unanimously admire the painting by El Greco. Everyone unanimously says that visiting Toledo is worth at least just to see it. Note that many liked the small church of Sao Tome itself, and the Cathedral of St. Mary, and the fortress of Alcazar. It is also said that photography is not allowed in the church, but in fact many people took pictures.

You can see other works of the master in his house-museum.