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[1323-40]
 Image source: Wikimedia commons | The Disrobing of Christ, which was painted for a room used to house religious relics in Toledo cathedral, depicts the moment when Christ has ascended to Calvary and is stripped of his clothes before being nailed to the cross. In this highly original composition, based on a range of both literary and visual sources, the traditional space has been compressed in order to convey Christ’s physical and mental suffering to the viewer. The intense expressiveness of the heads, intended to offer a complete repertoire of pictorial solutions, reveals the level of artistic mastery achieved by El Greco at this period. [Source: museodelprado.es] |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Disrobing of Christ, The | 1577-79 | Oil/Canvas | History Painting |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| El Greco (Domenkos Theotocopoulos) | 1541-1614, aged 72 | Spanish painter Toledo | Mannerism |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1323-41] | |
| Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid Spain | 285 x 173 |
 Image source: Wikimedia commons |
| The two large female figures are the Virgin Mary and an older woman, perhaps Saint Anne. They were recycled from a vertical painting of the Crucifixion. The sketchy background scenes, depicting the Journey of the Magi and the Annunciation to the Shepherds, were added by an assistant when the canvas was transformed into a horizontal format. The reason for this drastic surgery is not clear. X-radiography has revealed that this painting of the Nativity is unusually complicated since Tintoretto incorporated the lower section of a painting he made about twenty years earlier. [Source: collections.mfa.org] |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Nativity | 1579-81 | Oil/Canvas | History Painting |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Tintoretto, Jacopo (Jacopo Robusti) | 1518-1594, aged 79 | Italian painter Venice | Mannerism |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1323-42] | |
| Museum of Fine Arts, Boston | 156 x 358 |
| This bust-length portrait entered the Spanish royal collections as a donation by the widow of the Duke of Arco, gentleman-in- waiting, Equerry and Master of the Horse to Philip V. In his recreational estate at El Pardo, De Arco possessed a group of six portraits of gentlemen by El Greco whose provenance is now unknown. This group would come to constitute the principal holdings of portraits by the artist now in the Museo del Prado. [Source: museodelprado.es] |  Image source: Wikimedia commons |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Nobleman with his Hand on his Chest | 1580 | Oil/Canvas | Portrait |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| El Greco (Domenkos Theotocopoulos) | 1541-1614, aged 72 | Spanish painter Toledo | Mannerism |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1323-43] | |
| Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid Spain | 82 x 66 |
 Image source: statues.vanderkrogt.net | Carved from a single block of stone, this powerful marble sculpture by Giambologna, is surely one of the finest works in the history of sculpture. Regarded as a technical as well as a creative masterpiece, the statue combines the classical nude forms of Greek sculpture with the dynamism of Mannerism. Although, being a work of Roman mythology, it was not part of the campaign of religious art used by the Counter-Reformation. The Rape of the Sabine Women perfectly expresses the deep uncertainties of the late 16th century, in complete contrast to the calm confidence exuded by the High Renaissance statue of David carved by Michelangelo. In their different ways, these two works represent the very best of Renaissance sculpture of the cinquecento. [Source: visual-arts-cork.com] |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Rape of the Sabine Women | 1583 | Marble | Sculpture |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Giambologna | 1529-1608, aged 79 | Italian sculptor | Mannerism |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1323-44] | |
| Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence Italy | 410 (h) |
| Don Gonzalo Ruíz, who died in 1323 (later known by the title, Count of Orgaz), is not well-known, except for this painting – one of the world’s most recognizable and often reproduced paintings. Local stories circulated about the Count of Orgaz in the fourteenth century, including a miraculous story of the circumstances of his burial—that after he died Saints Augustine and Stephen lowered him into his tomb to honor him for his good deeds. This story continued to be popular in the city of Toledo, serving as the source of inspiration for El Greco. The paining is monumental, at almost 5m high, and depicts numerous figures in addition to the miraculous circumstances surrounding the burial of Don Gonzalo Ruíz. At the bottom center, Saint Augustine (on the left) and Saint Stephen (on the right) hold the Count of Orgaz, who is dressed in armor. As they lower him into his tomb, we get the impression that they place his body into the physical tomb that exists in front of the painting in the burial chapel. This act is reminiscent of paintings showing the entombment of Christ, such as the versions by Caravaggio, Pontormo, Raphael or Titian. [Source: khanacademy.org] |  Image source: Wikimedia commons |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Burial of Count Orgaz, The | 1586 | Oil/Canvas | History Painting |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| El Greco (Domenkos Theotocopoulos) | 1541-1614, aged 72 | Spanish painter Toledo | Mannerism |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1323-45] | |
| Church of Sainto Tomé, Toledo Spain | 480 x 360 |
 Image source: Wikimedia commons | El Greco was Greek by origin, but studied painting in Italy, in the studio of the great Titian, where he became strongly influenced by the Venetian colourists. From them he learned the technique of painting in oils. At the age of 35 he moved to the old Spanish capital, Toledo, where he became acquainted with Spanish Realist art. He was also inspired by the artistic devices employed in Italian Mannerism. In this Hermitage painting he presents us with two different types of people. On the left is the apostle Peter, who three times denied knowing Christ, after His arrest. His appearance conveys sorrow and uncertainty, while his gaze and gesture have a sense of repentance and entreaty about them. The masterful apostle Paul, who as is well known was originally a zealous persecutor of Christians, is shown filled with spiritual ardour in his affirmation of the truth. It is possible that in his appearance the artist captured his own features. The gestures of the hands that form the compositional centre of the work express a dialogue that nonetheless unites the two apostles. [Source: hermitagemuseum.org] |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Apostles Peter and Paul (other versions) | 1587-92 | Oil/Canvas | Portrait |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| El Greco (Domenkos Theotocopoulos) | 1541-1614, aged 72 | Spanish painter Toledo | Mannerism |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1323-46] | |
| State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg Russia | 122 x 105 |
| Vertumnus is an allegorical portrait of Arcimboldo’s employer, the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II. The portrait, named after Vertumnus, god of the seasons, is composed of fruits and vegetables. The composition as a whole symbolizes how Rudolph’s reign is in perfect harmony with nature, whereas every individual object carries its own symbolic meaning. Vertumnus is known worldwide and has been reproduced in all imaginable contexts, but its placement in Skokloster Castle, Sweden, remains largely unknown. [Source: europeana.eu] |  Image source: habsburger.net |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Emperor Rudolf II as Vertumnus | 1591 | Oil/Wood | Portrait |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Arcimboldo, Giuseppe | 1526-1593, aged 67 | Italian painter Milan | Mannerism |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1323-47] | |
| Skoklosters Slott, Sweden | 70 x 57 |
 Image source: pinterest | This statue represents the ancient sun-god Apollo’s first triumph, when, at Delphi, he slew with his bow and arrows the serpent Python, which lies dead at his feet. Apollo embodied the ideals of male beauty and heroism. A work of this size was certainly intended for a prominent location, and this statue probably stood in the courtyard of the Palazzo Salviati in Florence. The sculptor’s name and the date are inscribed across Apollo’s chest. The elegant pose and elongated proportions of this monumental statue are characteristic of the artful, late-Renaissance style known today as Mannerism. [Source: art.thewalters.org] |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Apollo Victorious over the Python | 1591 | Marble | Sculpture |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Francavilla, Pietro | 1548 – 1615, aged 67 | Italian sculptor | Mannerism |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1323-48] | |
| Walters Art Museum, Baltimore MD USA | 161 cm (h) |
| Tintoretto depicted the Last Supper several times during his artistic career. His earlier paintings for the Chiesa di San Marcuola and for the Chiesa di San Felice depict the scene from a frontal perspective, with the figures seated at a table placed parallel to the picture plane. This follows a convention observed in most paintings of the Last Supper, da Vinci’s probably the best-known example. Tintoretto’s 1592–1594 painting, a work of his final years, departs drastically from this compositional formula. The centre of the scene is occupied not by the apostles but instead by secondary characters, such as a woman carrying a dish and the servants taking the dishes from the table. The table at which the apostles sit recedes into space on a steep diagonal. Furthermore, Tintoretto’s painting features a more personal use of light, which appears to come into obscurity from both the light on the ceiling and from Jesus’ aureola. A host of angels hover above the scene. [Source: Wikimedia commons] |  Image source: Wikimedia commons |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Last Supper, The | 1592-4 | Oil/Canvas | History Painting |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Tintoretto, Jacopo (Jacopo Robusti) | 1518-1594, aged 78 | Italian painter Venice | Mannerism |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1323-49] | |
| St Giorgio Maggiore, Venice | 365 x 568 |
 Image source: louvre.fr | De Vries’s monumental bronze of Mercury Abducting Psyche draws inspiration from the spiraling compositions of Florentine sculptor Giambologna. [Source: louvre.fr] |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Mercury abducting Psyche | 1593 | Bronze | Sculpture |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| de Vries, Adriaen | 1556 – 1626, aged 70 | Dutch sculptor | Mannerism |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1323-50]
| |
| Musée du Louvre, Paris France | 0 |
| The marble group of Hercules and the Centaur Nessus, was carved, impressively, from a single block of marble by Giambologna. It sat in the open-air gallery Loggia dei Lanzi on the Piazza della Signoria in Florence, among the square’s other famous marble occupants. Showing an advanced understanding of anatomy – visible in Hercules’ rib cage, showing through his taut skin and the veined legs of the centaur, poised in battle – Giambologna’s statue is a powerful evocation of the strength of mortal man. Greatly influenced by Michelangelo, but an expert in his own Mannerist style, Giambologna’s stone carvings exhibit a focus on beauty rather than emotion. Under the influence of Georgio Vasari, Giambologna became one of the Medici’s most important court sculptors. [Source: tuttartpitturasculturapoesiamusica.com] |  Image source: Wikimedia commons |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Hercules and the Centaur Nessus | 1594-1600 | Bronze | Sculpture |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Giambologna | 1529-1608, aged 79 | Italian sculptor | Mannerism |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1323-51] | |
| Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY USA | 65 x 56 |
 Image source: leparisien.fr | This picture, painted around 1594, is of the second Fontainebleau school. It shows Gabrielle d’Estrées, who was Henri IV’s mistress, together with her sister, the Duchess of Villars, in the bath. But is it really her sister? Probably, since the two women look alike. But what about that gesture? The pinching of the nipple could signify that Gabrielle is pregnant, a supposition corroborated by the maidservant in the background sewing a layette. Gabrielle, who was waiting for the King to repudiate his official wife, Marguerite de Valois, had three children by him and died before the age of thirty, while pregnant with her fourth child, in 1599. [Source: mheu.org] |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Julienne and Gabrielle d’Estrées | 1594-5 | Oil/Canvas | Portrait |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Unknown | 0 | French | Mannerism/ Fontainbleau school |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1323-52] | |
| Musée du Louvre, Paris France | 96 x 125 |
| Mary Magdalene, at Christ´s feet, and three angels collecting the blood of the slain Saviour, appear framed by the figures of the Virgin and Saint John the Evangelist. Light and color are used to bring dramatic intensity to the chosen subject, generating a night scene with highly contrasted colors. Some figures, such as that of Mary Magdalene, follow Italian models, recalling the artist´s training. [Source: museodelprado.es] |  Image source: museodelprado.es |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Crucifixion, La | 1597-1600 | Oil/Canvas | History Painting |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| El Greco (Domenkos Theotocopoulos) | 1541-1614, aged 72 | Spanish painter Toledo | Mannerism |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1323-53] | |
| Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid Spain | 312 x 169 |
 Image source: Wikimedia commons | This painting was made for the Capilla de San José (Chapel of Saint Joseph) in Toledo. Originally it was placed on the right-hand side of the high altar. This painting shows the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus enthroned in the heavens, surrounded by angels and seraphim. St Martina is depicted with the lion and palm branch and St Agnes with the lamb. [Source: wga.hu] |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Madonna and Child with Saint Martina and Saint Agnes | 1597-9 | Oil/Canvas | History Painting |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| El Greco (Domenkos Theotocopoulos) | 1541-1614, aged 72 | Spanish painter Toledo | Mannerism |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1323-54] | |
| National Gallery of Art, Washington DC USA | 194 x 103 |
| Commissioned for the Chapel of San José in Toledo by Martín Ramírez, a namesake of the saint and donor of the chapel, Saint Martin and the Beggar was part of one of the artist’s most successful ensembles. The saint, who lived during the reign of Constantine the Great, was a member of the imperial cavalry stationed near Amiens, in Gaul. Coming upon a shivering beggar near the city gates on a cold winter day, the young soldier divided his cloak with his sword and shared it with him. Tradition has it that Christ later appeared to Martin in a dream, saying, ‘What thou hast done for that poor man, thou hast done for me.’ [Source: nga.gov] |  Image source: Wikimedia commons |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Saint Martin and the Beggar | 1597-9 | Oil/Canvas | History Painting |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| El Greco (Domenkos Theotocopoulos) | 1541-1614, aged 72 | Spanish painter Toledo | Mannerism |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1323-69] | |
| National Gallery of Art, Washington DC USA | 194 x 103 |
 Image source: metmuseum.org | El Greco’s candid portraits have been consistently admired for their naturalism and psychological insight, even when (as in the eighteenth century) his other works fell out of favour. This portrait of about 1595–1600 has been alternately accepted and rejected as a searching self-portrait. Although there is no documented portrait of the artist, he seems to have cast himself in supporting roles within some of his pictures and these bear some resemblance to the present sitter. (Source: metmuseum.org) |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Portrait of an Old Man (Self-portrait?) | 1595-1600 | Oil/Canvas | Portrait |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| El Greco (Domenkos Theotocopoulos) | 1541-1614, aged 72 | Spanish painter Toledo | Mannerism |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1323-55] | |
| Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY USA | 53 x 47 |
 Image source: nationalgallery.org.uk | Landscape with the Flight into Egypt is a 1563 oil on wooden board painting showing the biblical Flight into Egypt of the Holy Family. The work is a naturalistic world landscape, following the then conventions. The family are small figures in an imaginary panoramic landscape seen from an elevated viewpoint, with mountains and lowlands, water, and buildings. The subject had long been a popular one in Early Netherlandish art. Joseph is leading a donkey, bearing Mary who is holding the infant Jesus, tightly wrapped for the journey; his white head can be seen on her chest. They are descending a slope overlooking an Alpine landscape, with a wide river valley bordered by hills and mountains. Mary’s unusual red cloak (rather than her traditional blue) and white headgear makes her stand out against the blue of the river, while Joseph’s greyish clothes contrast with the green and brown background of wooded hills. In the background, the buildings of towns are faintly visible on each side of the river. [Source: Wikimedia commons} |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Landscape with the Flight into Egypt | c1600 | Oil/Canvas | History Painting |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Brueghel the Elder, Jan | c1525-1569 | Flemish painter | Mannerism |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1323-56] | |
| Courtauld Gallery London (or Bayerische Staatsge?) | 95 x 118 |
| This intense portrait depicts Fernando Niño de Guevara, who in 1596 was named cardinal and is dressed as such here. In 1599 he became Inquisitor General of Spain but resigned in 1602 to serve the rest of his life as Archbishop of Seville. The painting probably dates from the spring of 1600 when the cardinal was in Toledo with Philip III and members of the Madrid court. [Source: metmuseum.org] |  Image source: metmuseum.org |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Cardinal Fernando Niño de Guevara, Portrait of | 1600 | Oil/Canvas | Portrait |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| El Greco (Domenkos Theotocopoulos) | 1541-1614, aged 72 | Spanish painter Toledo | Mannerism |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1323-57] | |
| Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY USA | 171 x 108 |
 Image source: nationalgallery.org.uk | El Greco has used theatrical gestures and intense colours to express the chaos and disruption of the Purification of the Temple – the moment that Christ drove out traders selling animals for sacrifice, furious that the temple was being used for commerce. Christ’s anger is shown through his body, arm raised ready to strike; he looks like a spring ready to uncoil. A sculpture of Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden, to the left of the archway, reinforces the sinfulness of the traders’ actions. In contrast, Christ’s apostles stand in front of a relief sculpture showing the Old Testament figure Abraham, who was willing to sacrifice his own son on God’s command. [Source: nationalgallery.org.uk] |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Christ Driving the Traders from the Temple | 1600 | Oil/Canvas | History Painting |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| El Greco (Domenkos Theotocopoulos) | 1541-1614, aged 72 | Spanish painter Toledo | Mannerism |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1323-58] | |
| National Gallery, London UK | 106 x 128 |
| Brueghel’s Great Fish-Market contains many elements of Mannerist landscape painting. Rendered in a perspective that is almost a bird’s-eye-view, the scene opens up across a downward-sloping foreground teeming with hundreds of figures grouped around the stalls and booths of a fishmarket. The eye is drawn towards the harbour in the background, out across the bay and along the coastline, past entire towns with ruins, piers and fortresses, into the depths of the mountains, whose blue merges with the sea. [Source: wga.hu] |  Image source: Wikimedia commons |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Great Fish Market | 1603 | Oil/Canvas | Genre Painting |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Brueghel the Elder, Jan | 1568-1625, aged 57 | Flemish painter | Mannerism |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1323-59] | |
| Alte Pinakothek, Munich | 59 x 92 |
 Image source: Wikimedia commons | The painting shows Hortensio Félix Paravicino, a monk of the Trinitarian Order and major Spanish poet who was also a close friend of the painter. He is shown in the Trinitarian habit. [Source: Wikimedia commons] |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Felix Hortensio Paravicino, Portrait of | 1609 | Oil/Canvas | Portrait |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| El Greco (Domenkos Theotocopoulos) | 1541-1614, aged 72 | Spanish painter Toledo | Mannerism |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | ||
| Museum of Fine Arts, Boston | 112 x 86 |
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