Petruschki's Journey Into the Blue - Chapter 15 - El Greco - The long Limbs Dance in Light and Shadow

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In December 2019 we went on a journey by bus and train through Spain, France, Germany, Belgium, Great Britain and Ireland. The aim was the exhibition Protest! by Derek Jarman in Dublin, there was so much to see on the way there. We visited 21 exhibitions and discovered many stories. More about this in Chapter 1 Dreaming into the Blue. We are still at the very beginning of our trip in Paris. Here we visit the Greco exhibition in the Grand Palais. There are now 3 chapters about the Greco exhibition. The first chapter you can see here: Crackling colors and the celebration of the vertical, the second here The Green between Heaven and Earth.

This is a late painting by El Greco. It was created between 1608 and 1614 and has only survived as a fragment. El Greco died before he could finish it. In fact, it was intended for his own grave chapel. Even his son did not finish it, as he had done with some other works. The Spanish painter Ignacio Zuloaga, who owned this picture for a long time, described it as a harbinger of modernity. A harbinger that appears 300 years ahead. For me it is unimaginable how El Greco could create something like that, without context, with this temporal distance to everything that is even in the least similar. A visionary. An artist who was able to express his visions in an incomparable way.

Until the beginning of the 20th century the picture was called “Divine and earthly love”. Probably because of the many naked people. Implied penises for the men, the women somehow without bosom. They don't hug each other and stretch their arms towards the sky. Nowadays it is called: “The Opening of the 5th Seal” or “The Apocalypse of the 5th Seal” or “The Vision of John”. Sounds secretive if you are not biblicaly versed like me. Just think of Bergmann's film: The Seventh Seal. Briefly about the story, which is probably represented here: In the Revelation of John, the vision of John is described in chapters 6-8. The Lamb of God opens the 7 seals of a book. The souls who were persecuted and killed because they were Christians appear in the opened 5th seal. I can't help it, I imagine such a nibbling lamb ... and the seals jump up and ...

Revelation to John, chapter 6, verses 9 to 11: “When the Lamb opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of all who had been slain because of the word of God and because of the testimony they had given. They shouted in a loud voice: How long do you hesitate, Lord, you holy and true one, to keep judgment and to avenge our blood on the inhabitants of the earth? A white robe was given to each of them; and they were told to wait a short time until the full number was reached through the death of their fellow servants and brothers who would still have to die like them. "

The work is approximately two meters square. On the left in the foreground we see John in the moment of his vision. He has stretched his arms up. In this way El Greco often expressed the moments of highest spirituality. A huge blue robe, with stiff folds, is wrapped around his body. A dress like a force of nature, like the surging water of the sea. There is also fabric in a skin-colored shade on the floor. It reaches as far as the groups of people, three naked men and three naked women, the women pale white and the men dark. As if visionary and vision were connected with it. All are held in a stretching, twisting motion. Above it are angels who are almost in a spinning dive. One of them hands a man a white cloth. According to the prophecy, the persecuted and killed are dressed in white robes. We also see large areas of green and yellow cloth. The sky also seems to be made out of a stiff, cold blue-gray fabric. One cannot avoid thinking of Expressionism at the beginning of the 20th century. And quite a few artists of the 20th century made reference to this image. For example Picasso in his Demoiselles d´Avignon from the Rose Period, who must have seen the picture in Zuloaga. Or Robert Delauney and Jackson Pollock.

El Greco Jesus in the Olive Grove 1590 und 1600

El Greco Jesus in the Olive Grove 1590

As you can see above, the two paintings of Jesus in the Olive Grove from 1590 and 1600 were hanging right next to each other in the exhibition. It was incredibly interesting how colors, angels, landscape, the "movement" of the sleeping disciples had changed from one painting to the other.

The earlier one can be seen here in a larger image.

“My soul is grieved to death, stay here and watch…” After the Lord's Supper, Jesus went with Jacob, John and Peter to the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives. There he asked the disciples to watch while he prayed, but they were asleep. It is the night before the crucifixion. And Jesus quarrels and doubts, he suffers and sweats blood, he struggles with his impending fate, he thinks of rejecting his divinity in order to escape the torments. .... Let this cup pass me by ... An angel appears to him to give him consolation. The disciples are asleep, there is no human closeness for him. The Garden of Gethsemane means facing abyss, suffering, pain and torment without succumbing to hatred and dehumanizing yourself.

There is conflict and threat, despair and loneliness. El Greco depicts it like a highly dramatic theater or movie scene. In fact, his admirer Sergej Eisenstein saw him as an early film artist. Neither space nor time need a logic here, but instead tell this disturbing story in a detached manner. It is a barren, rocky, withered landscape, this Garden of Gethsemane. The brown, pointed rock seems to envelop Jesus like a garment. Jesus kneels in a red dress on a blue cloth. The light shining from the angel makes the folds of the fabrics glow white. The yellow-clad angel hands him the goblet with outstretched wings, which Jesus has to drink to the bitter end. Jesus looks up at him in ecstasy and sadness, he holds his fine hands as if to bless this earthly life, which will soon be behind him. The angel flies up on a cloud in which the disciples sleep like in a cave. They are painted very shortened and at the same time appear present and infinitely far away. Their sleep gestures and the fabrics that envelop you have something of dance and movement, of dancing unconsciousness, of whirling impotence. On the right side of the picture you can see Judas approaching with the soldiers in the distance. Soon he will give him the traitor's kiss.

These are the angels with the chalice from the respective paintings. You end up in a kind of cave where the disciples fell asleep and did not care about Jesus.

The Olive Grove Rainer Maria Rilke

He went out under the grey leaves,
all grey and indistinct, this olive grove,
and buried his dusty face
in the dust of his hot hands.

It has come to this. Is this how it ends?
Must I continue when I'm going blind?
Why do you want me to say you exist
when I no longer find you myself?

I cannot find you any more. Not within me.
Not in others. Not in these stones.
I find you no longer. I am alone.

I am alone with everyone's sorrow,
the sorrow I tried to relieve through you,
you who do not exist. O unspeakable shame.

Later they would say an angel came.

Why angel? What came was night,
moving indifferently amidst the trees.
The disciples stirred in in their dreams.
Why an angel? What came was night.

The night that came was like any other,
dogs sleeping, stones lying there—
like any night of grief,
to be survived till morning comes.

Angels do not answer prayers like that,
nor do they let eternity break through.
Nothing protects those who lose themselves.

Translation Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy found here

When this painting was acquired in 1919, the museum was accused of buying a picture of a madman. 1919! The poeple were so shocked by Greco's bright colors and distorted shapes.

A few years after the war, Helmut Schmidt, he former German Chancellor, visited the National Gallery in London and was amazed to discover a very modern picture that was already 350 years old. As he describes in his book -Ausser Dienst Eine Bilanz-, it was a revelation for him.

Matthew (26:36) Jesus in the garden Gethsemane

Anette von Droste-Hülshoff Gethsemane Nietzsche Gethsemane und Golgatha Rilke Der Öbaumgarten

El Greco Mary Magdalene and the Holy Family 1610-1614.

The painting Mary Magdalene and the Holy Family was created between 1610 and 1614 and now hangs in the Cleveland Museum, USA.

Maria looks melancholically into the indefinite. Sadness casts a shadow over her delicate girl's face. The baby Jesus smiles with an alert look. Joseph is fully of this world. He looks friendly at the child and hands him a glass bowl with fruit. And then there is Maria Magdalena, who actually doesn't belong there. It is more likely that you will find Ana, Maria's mother, here. Maria Magdalena is wrapped in a red-orange tunic, the folds of which nestle harmoniously against Mary's blue dress. The robe has slipped slightly on the head and shows something of her light hair. In a loving protective gesture, she puts her arm around Mary and looks over her shoulder at baby Jesus. Her complexion is pale and she looks very worried. As if the four characters depicted were spaces in different stories and times. Mary almost transcendent, Joseph inclined to the child, the baby curious and vital, and Mary Magdalene ashen full of worry, knowing about impending suffering. They are dressed in strong colors, Joseph in yellow, Maria Magdalena in orange-red and Maria in shining blue. The brushstrokes are placed criss-cross next to each other. Something that you unconsciously perceive as movement. El Greco is said to have painted on checked fabric at times. It is breathtaking how the dynamic brushstroke fits into this spatial presence.

El Greco Fray Hortensio Félix Paravicino 1609

The portrait of Fray Hortensio Félix Paravicino was created around 1609 and is now hanging in the Museum Of Fine Arts in Boston. It is considered to be one of the most outstanding portraits that Greco created. A rather handsome young man, with a look that cannot be interpreted: full of mildness or with great distance. Fray Hortensio was 29 years old when El Greco portrayed him here. Despite an age difference of almost 40 years, they were close friends, the monk dedicated 6 sonnets to the painter. In one of them he says that the image surpasses reality and that it is a better home for his soul than his own body. He was a poet and a humanist. He later became court chaplain to Philip III and Philip IV. When Philip III died, he gave a funeral oration that caused much controversy. He loved painting, but wanted to have all nudes destroyed. He said, “The finest paintings are the greatest threat. Burn the best of them.” That was too extreme an opinion even for the 17th century, after all, the king and nobility had hung their palaces full of nudes.

El Greco Portrait of Kardinals Don Fernando Niño de Guevara 1600

This portrait of Cardinal Fernando Niño de Guevara, created in 1600, is now in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. A Grand Inquisitor. Fernando Niño de Guevara held the office of Grand Inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition between 1599 and 1601. The prelate with a gray beard looks directly at the viewer. There is again a lot to discover in this picture. What first catches the eye, of course, is the round, in those times hyper-modern thread glasses, which were attached to the ears with cord loops. A sign of an educated man who is open to new times. The look, ... appraising and confident, it seems to me. His distant coolness is broken by his left hand cramped slightly around the armrest. The other ringed hand, however, hangs casually over it. And the clothes… .A cardinal actually wears deep red, here the color changes to crunchy pink due to the incidence of light. The folds just swirl around the stoic man. They boil and make waves and suddenly, if you focus on them, they become hyper-realistic. The white choir shirt is painted in an almost impressionistic manner, the white color is applied directly to the dark primer. Two wine-red shoe tips protrude from under the robe. And there is a piece of paper, thrown down by accident, lost, left lying there. With the signature of the artist. The background with the three-part structure, wood paneling, curtain, brocade wallpaper looks like a theatrical set.

Jesus on the Cross 1610

El Greco painted numerous pictures “Jesus on the Cross”. Here you can see them all together:

It is believed that he himself added landscapes and other people in later years and that the respective Jesus was painted by painters in the workshop.

I think ... What a beautiful body - more in flight than fixed on the cross. What a simultaneity of vulnerability and strength. This body is nailed to the cross and yet in flowing motion. And the expression on the face ... bright, soulful, fulfilled and no longer of this world.

In the spectacular painting “The Burial of the Count of Orgaz” El Greco portrayed himself at around 46/47 years of age. The portrait of an old man is also considered a self-portrait - but there is no real evidence for it.

El Greco trained as an icon painter and then turned to the Venetian Renaissance, prepared the baroque in painting with his individual style.

El Greco stands between times with his narrative and highly dramatic painting, between the East and the West and between the artistic developments of his time.

Forgotten for 300 years, he was rediscovered and celebrated by the Expressionists around 1900. He had a decisive influence on painting in the 20th century and inspired painters such as Picasso, Kokoschka and Pollock.

El Greco and the others of the Renaissance and Baroque:

Leonardo Da Vinci 1452-1519 polymath and Renaissance painter

Michelangelo 1475 - 1564 leading painter and sculptor of the Italian High Renaissance

Raffael 1483 - 1520 painter of the High Renaissance

Titian 1490 - 1576 leading painter of the Italian High Renaissance. Formative for Greco

Tintoretto 1518 - 1594 Mannerist painter

Plautilla Nelli 1524 - 1588 self-taught and first known Renaissance female painter

Catharina von Hemessen 1528 - 1588 Renaissance female painter

Sofonisba Anguissola 1535 - 1625 most successful Renaissance female painter of her time

El Greco 1541-1614

Lavinia Fontana 1552 - 1614 Italian mannerist painter

Carravagio 1571 - 1610 important early baroque painters, at the same time Caravaggio and Greco worked with the Chiaroscuro, dramatic light and dark effects

Rubens 1577 - 1640 Baroque painter (of whom we will see a lot more in a following article after we got into a Rubens rush)

Artemisia Gentileschi 1593 - 1654 important baroque female painter - click here for the chapter about her

Clara Peeters 1594 - 1658 Baroque female painter, famous still life

Anthonis van Dyck 1599 - 1641 Baroque painter to whom a later chapter will be dedicated

Velasquez 1599 - 1660 Baroque painter Numerous portraits, he himself owned three portraits that El Greco had painted

Rembrandt 1606 - 1669 important Baroque painter

And the next chapter is about Plautilla Nelli, the painter who was a nun. Born 17 years before El Greco.

Plautilla Nelli The Last Supper Detail