Madrid,
As soon as in 1577, when he had just arrived in Spain from Rome, the two most important commissions of his career received the Greco until that moment (he was no longer as young, he added 36 years). The first was to The plunderthat custody the sacristy of the cathedral of Toledo and that a decade ago was restored, in the Prado; And the second, the three altarpieces for the Cistercian monastery of Santo Domingo El Antigua, one of the oldest in that city and still inhabited by nuns of the Order.
When he was about to modify the trace of his church, at the expense of the dean of that cathedral, Diego de Castilla, and María de Silva, Portuguese lady at the service of Isabel de Portugal, Carlos V’s wife -both would be buried there- , From Castilla he commissioned the Cretan to carry out that company, which rigged both the design of the three altarpieces and the realization of the five sculptures that crowned the main and eight canvases. The Greco had with recommendations: those of Luis de Castilla, son of his principal, who had met him in Italy, in the Farnesio Palace.
This would be a project, which took him two years, fundamental both in the painter’s trajectory and in the history of Spanish painting and in that of our altarpieces: in front of his Castilian reticular tradition, in this case by Venetian influence he opted the Greco by Have the pieces around a large central table, dependent on it and related to its design. The preponderant place occupied him The assumption; On the side streets were the saints Juan Bautista, Juan Evangelista, Benito and Bernardo; And the upper body was for The Trinity. Finally, a coat of weapons in wood on the central work was later covered with a Santa Fazwhich also elaborated the Greek.
It is possible to imagine the complexity of his work, which would require a good number of drawings and sketches to work with solvency, and the admiration that the whole should have raised between those who could then contemplate it: monumental, he pursued the Greco in the compositional management, in the compositional management, in The chromatic combinations and in the invoice, at times with Miguelangellescos or Venetian echoes -it is necessary to take into account that a good part of their previous works had the icon format. The relevance that these works would have for him points to the fact that he himself would like to be buried in this place.
Almost two centuries after its dispersion, the Prado Museum has managed The functions of the Pinacoteca. The stage in which they disintegrated, around 1830, coincided with a moment of good valuation of that early stage of the Greco (there are those who refer to this time like that of the Great Greco); Decades later the avant -garde would pay their attention to their subsequent creations, as another exhibition of the Madrid museum in 2014 highlighted.
This cabinet exhibition that has been arranged in the central gallery – confirms to a museography that deconstructs the main altarpiece of Santo Domingo, proposing to contemplate it step by step – aúna monumentality and vocation to inspire recollection and possibly will be long remembered: the impact of the presentation of the presentation From the pieces on this scenario, the reasonable doubt of when we will have the opportunity to be able to enjoy them nearby is joined; All of them, by the way, have been subjected to technical studies and, according to Leticia Ruiz, curator of the sample, are in an extraordinary state of conservation, so much that they would be executed yesterday: it has barely necessary to remove some dirt and varnishes. Sometimes they keep their retransques to be anchored and their original protection boards.
In the case of The assumptioncentral work in both the Toledo altarpiece and in this assembly, its journey has been long: in the aforementioned year of 1830, it was acquired by the Infante Sebastián Gabriel de Borbón, who six years later was confiscated by the Elizabethan government to return it in 1859 . Something later, in 1902, this fabric was part of the first temporary exhibition that the meadow hosted and had not returned to its rooms so far: in 1904 it was sold in the Durand-Ruel gallery in Paris and would go to Nancy Atwood, who in 1906 donated to Art Institute of Chicago, the center that has lent it.
The same Infante Sebastián Gabriel took the saints Bernardo and Benito, who in 1836 were confiscated again and were deposited in the Trinity Museum. At this point they separated: San Bernardo would also be restored, in 1861, and the Duke of Dúrcal, son of the same collector, also sold it in Paris; It would go through several hands until they were deposited in the Berlin Nationalgalerie and, after World War II and as Booty, taken to Russia: today the Ermitage of St. Petersburg keeps it and has not been lent; We will contemplate a reproduction. For his part, San Benito did not return to the owner and went from the Trinity to the Prado.
As to The Trinityhis life has been more placid: it was acquired by Valeriano Salvatierra, who sold it to Fernando VII in 1832 and from the Royal Collection passed to that of the Prado; The Holy Faz He entered private hands since he was disassembled from the altarpiece in the sixties and the Adoration of shepherds It belongs to the Botín Foundation funds.
Probably the first work of the group, and the first of the Greco in our country, was The assumptionin turn the only one of the author. It highlights the stillness and calm of the faces of the apostles -it is feasible that some constitute portraits and others respond to learned models -but if they have something in common it is the saturation of their palette, the density of their brushstrokes and their grandiosity, which they share With angels. The Virgin would direct her gaze to the Trinity, a connection accentuated by the expected provision of the pieces in the altarpiece; In that last work, God sustains the body of the dead Christ flanked by angels: it is a Compassio patris (male piety)in which the Father wears as a priest of the Old Testament and surveys both the Holy Spirit. A Durero stamp inspired the composition, but also Miguel Ángel as to the anatomy of Christ, powerful and in an unstable position.
His San Juanes, both in the Toledo convent, precedes their subsequent images of whole body. The image of the evangelist is unusual: it is not a young imberbe, but an old white and corpulent beard, but we do a book in which it seems to be self -absorbed. The bass horizon emphasizes its monumentality, a resource that the Greco would repeat in later canvases. Regarding the Baptist, he follows Byzantine models: ascetic and consumed, it is covered by his characteristic camel skin, the one he carried in his retirement in the desert, and presents hair and beard. His index finger pointed to the tabernacle, as a place where the sacrifice of Christ is renewed, to which he preceded, and the absence of spatial elements and the contrasts in the enlightenment approximate this image to the sculptural.
The resurrectionalso arrival from Toledo, is based on pieces of Italian teachers and dynamism enhances it: it highlights the contrast between the soldiers who rest and those who rise with fear or surprise before the vision of a majestic and Apollonian Christ. The Greco included San Ildefonso, who wears the white garments of the Easter of Resurrection.
As for the Adoration of shepherdsraised a very original composition in the treatment of space: the Child Jesus is the focus of light of those around him venerating him and angels who seem balancers. San Jerónimo, first, appears at the request of Deán Castilla. And San Bernardo and San Benito, medium figures that absorb certain features of the Venetian portrait that will then move to the Apostolate of the Greco, share precise and not idealized features, to the point of resembling portraits; the second, asceta and mature, would point with his hand to The assumption. Finally, the Santa Faz It already offers a later style (it has been between a five years and a decade later) and its same format is unusual.
Beyond its Italian food, almost everything in the Greco, in the background and the form, pointed to the unpublished and elevated.
“El Greco. Santo Domingo El Antigua “
National Prado Museum
Paseo del Prado, s/n
Madrid
From February 17 to June 15, 2025
