Concerning El Greco's altarpiece The Baptism of Christ for a chapel of the Hospital of Saint John the Baptist outside the walls

• Autores: Sai Kadota
• Localización: Estudios de arte español y latinoamericano, Nº. 5, 2004, págs. 11-19
• Idioma: varios idiomas
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • In 1957, Wittkower was the first to draw a connection between El Greco and Neo-Platonism when the argued for the influence of Celestial Hierachy by Psudo Dionysius the Aeropagite on El Grecós painting. Since that time, there has been much debate on the topic. 1997, John Moffit took up the Pseudo’s treatise again, making concrete reference to El Greco’s works. In this essay, I draw upon previous research as I examine El Greco’s Baptism of the Christ, painted in his final years for the Hospital of Saint John the Baptist, also known as the hospital Tavera. In the first part, I present a summary of previous research into El Greco’s connection with Neo-Paltonism. I then clarify the differences in expression between El Greco’s Baptism for Saint John’s and the Baptism of the Christ he painted for the Colegio Doña María de Aragón ten years earlier. In particular, the author focuses on his unusual representation of God the Father and an angel. On the grounds that the Dionysius is included in El Greco’s inventory, the author verifies that the mystic treatise is a definite source for the expressions of the celestial realm that characterize Baptism. Moreover, the author demonstrates that Salazar de Mendoza, administrator of Saint John’s and commissioner of the painting, held similar views to El Greco on Neo-Platonism, thus adding collateral evidence for the likelihood of the influence of Neo-Platonic concepts on the painting’s exression. That is to say, the goal of this essay is to present an additional example that lends further support to the previously established opinion regarding El Greco’s relationship with Neo-Platonism.