Athens show sheds new light on painter El Greco

ATHENS (Reuters Life!) - El Greco's elongated, ascetic figures dominate an Athens exhibition on the master painter's workshop, shedding new light on a once obscure and misunderstood artist. The show, which opened its gates on Wednesday, illuminates the so far unexplored studio of the Greek-born painter whose work was met with skepticism by some of his contemporaries but inspired artists such as Pablo Picasso.

By Dina Kyriakidou
"It is the first exhibition dedicated to El Greco's workshop," said curator Nikos Hadjinicolaou. "The fact that we examine the whole studio, and not just the artist, is a testament to his success."
Born in 1541 on the island of Crete, El Greco traveled to Italy, where he honed his craft under the influence of artists like Titian, before emigrating to Spain in 1577.
He set up his workshop in Toledo, where he received numerous commissions and produced the best of his work - large, religious paintings in a distinct, personal style.
"Our aim is to bring to light the work of a great painter who had a great passion for both Spain and Greece," said Maria Isabel Serrano, a Spanish cultural official, co-organizing the exhibition. "We are trying to show his workshop and how it operated."
The exhibition gathers 45 oil paintings, including eight signed by El Greco - typically in his Greek name Domenikos Theotocopoulos - and those of his son Jorge Manuel, his pupils and later followers.
The workshop proves El Greco was a commercial success, Hadjinicolaou said. Unable to cope with demand after his best known work, The Burial of Count Orgaz, he was obliged to hire assistants and train them to keep up with his commissions.
"We have documents saying that he was considered very expensive but worth the money," he said.
The show, which brings together paintings from several Spanish, U.S. and other museums, includes some of El Greco's writings and documents such as an inventory of his possessions and rent contract.
Original paintings, such as St Ildefonso, are juxtaposed with copies by students or later artists, showing that even the best of his pupils could not match the master, famous for the gaunt, uplifted faces of his saints and worshipers.
Generations immediately after his death in 1614 dismissed his work as too strange and anti-naturalistic but he was later rediscovered and recognized as an artist ahead of his time.
The exhibition at the Museum of Cycladic Art, which was inaugurated by Spain's Queen Sofia and Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis on Tuesday, runs until January 5.

18.10.2007