'A voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again': a new interpretation of View of Toledo by El Greco
- Autores: Michiko Matsui Mori
- Localización: Estudios de arte español y latinoamericano, Nº. 7, 2006 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Número conmemorativo del décimo aniversario de la Asociación), págs. 49-57
- Idioma: varios idiomas
- Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
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Resumen
The dramatic atmosphere and the intense sentiment of the landscape in View of Toledo by El Greco, owe much to the tradition of the Venetian paintings. D. Davies pointed out that the dramatic device of painting the city in a thunderstorm stems from Pliny who acclaims Apelles, in his Natural History, because ‘he even painted things that can not be represented in pictures –thunder, lightning and thunderbolt.’ (XXXV. 96). Furthermore, we may assume that Greco tried to represent the voice of God, because de rumbling of thunder is described repeatedly in the Bible as the voice of God communicating his will to men.
On the other hand, the same kind of view of landscape appears in the background of Saint Joseph and the Christ Child in the Capilla de San José, Toledo. The inscription adjacent to this altarpiece refers to Toledo as the city under the eternal protection of od. Therefore the View of Toledo is considered to represent the scene of God saying, ‘he thundereth with the voice of his excellence; and he will not stay them when his voice is heard’ (Job 37: 4), giving the promise to the Toleden with the words ‘a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again’ (John 12:28).
The tiny figures painted in the river and by the bank in the foreground of View seem to be washing for gold, alluding the well-known legend of the golden sands of the Tagus.
