El Greco’s real name was Domenikos Theotokopoulos. He was born in Crete (“el Greco” is Spanish for “the Greek”), but he spent most of his working life in Spain, where he was that country’s greatest painter during Shakespeare’s lifetime.

The tendency with El Greco is to talk about how “modern” and “spiritual” his pictures appear. Both characterizations ring true; I have no quarrel with them. On the spiritual side, it’s perfectly clear: El Greco (1541-1614) transformed bodies into attenuated shapes that ripple and rise like flames so that they always seem on the verge of ascension.

At the same time, the artist flattened out the space in his paintings, distorting shapes and proportions for the sake of expression. Both tendencies were hallmarks of 16th-century mannerism, the style that prevailed during El Greco’s lifetime. But we’ve also come to identify them with modern art. So it makes sense that he was deeply admired by such moderns as Edgar Degas, John Singer Sargent and, most passionately, a young Picasso. Picasso’s 1907 “Demoiselles d’Avignon,” widely regarded as the 20th century’s most important painting, was partly inspired by El Greco’s “The Vision of Saint John.”

Para leer el resto del artículo de Sebastian Smee seguir el enlace.   https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/interactive/2022/el-greco-view-of-toledo/?itid=hp_DM%20module

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