View of Toledo View of Toledo 16th Centry Nothern Europe Art

Painting past El Greco

View of Toledo
Spanish: Vista de Toledo

Creative person	El Greco
Year	1596–1600
Medium	Oil on canvas
Motion	Mannerism
Dimensions	121.3 cm × 108.6 cm (47.8 in × 42.8 in)
Location	Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City

View of Toledo (original championship Vista de Toledo), is one of the two surviving landscapes painted by El Greco, along with View and Plan of Toledo. View of Toledo is held by the Metropolitan Museum of Fine art in New York Metropolis.

View of Toledo is among the best known depictions of the sky in Western fine art, along with Vincent van Gogh's The Starry Night and the landscapes of J. Yard. West. Turner and Claude Monet. Art historian Keith Christiansen included View of Toledo amid the artist'southward most ambitious masterpieces, describing it every bit one of Western art'southward nearly celebrated landscapes.^[1]

Historical context [edit]

Dating [edit]

Fine art historians, specifically Harold Wethey, accept been debating the exact dating of View of Toledo. There was some debate among art historians due to early on literature that wrote about El Greco. The early on literature that Walter Liedtke mentions in "Three Paintings past El Greco," suggests that the View of Toledo was painted later 1600 and shortly earlier El Greco passed in 1614. However, art historian Harold Wethey believes it was painted betwixt 1595-1600 because of the similarities to El Greco'due south other piece, Saint Joseph and the Christ Child. Wethey backs up this claim because Saint Joseph and the Christ Kid was completed between 1597-1599. Wethey also provides more prove by pointing out the same techniques used in the groundwork of Saint Joseph and the Christ Child that 1 can come across in View of Toledo.^[2]

Significance of landscape [edit]

Mural paintings were rare amongst Spanish paintings of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Due to mural paintings being and then rare, some speculate that View of Toledo is actually from a larger painting. Nevertheless, there has been no valid proof or confirmation to whether that is the case.^[3] The Quango of Trent's ban confronting mural painting^{[ citation needed ]} lends acceptance to the idea that this work may stand equally the starting time Spanish landscape painting of its time.

Description [edit]

View of Toledo is a landscape portrait. The painting is vibrant with blues, black, white, and vivid greens. It is made up of all earth tones. Most notable is the distinct colour contrast between the darkness of the skies in a higher place and the vibrance of green in the hills beneath. View of Toledo shows viewers an image of darkness, or moodiness that is present in Toledo. Observers can see that the heaven grows exceptionally dark near the city. El Greco creates a palette total of dramatic colors. While contemplating View of Toledo, people can see the dissimilarity from light to dark. At that place are rolling hills depicted with Toledo at the height. The city of Toledo is very grey in dissimilarity to the vibrant dark-green of the hills. On the opposite end the city itself is likewise a light dissimilarity to the night colour of the sky. El Greco uses pure colors to his advantage.^[4] The location of the Castle of San Servando, on the left, is accurately depicted. However, many other landmarks that are clearly referring to Toledo are not in the right location that is true to the city. Walter Liedtke believes this is because El Greco painted the View of Toledo more every bit a future or a promise to what it would await like.^[ii] Fine art historians, Jonathon Brown and Richard Kagan, have also hinted to the theory that El Greco painted the city of Toledo in an alternate way to fit his imagination or platonic version of Toledo.^[v]

Mode [edit]

El Greco has a unique fashion with influences from Italian artists equally well as Spanish and Greek. Throughout his painting career, El Greco changed his style based upon the places he lived. However, he nigh always painted with influence from his Cretan or Greek roots. He often wrote in Greek and used the Greek alphabet instead of the Latin alphabet. View of Toledo carries this tradition of his Greek roots through his signature. He ever signed his art with his real name, Domenikos Theotokopoulos.^[6] El Greco's signature appears in the lower-right corner. El Greco's style was known to be more uneven.^[7] That uneven particular that is normally establish in his fine art is in his line work and in the physical location of Toledo in the painting. While influenced by the Mannerist style, El Greco's expressive treatment of color and form is without parallel in the history of art. The Welsh art historian David Davies asserts that the philosophies of Platonism and ancient Neo-Platonism, the works of Plotinus and Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, the texts of the Church fathers and the liturgy offer the keys to the understanding of El Greco's manner.^[8] Summarizing the ensuing scholarly debate on this upshot, José Álvarez Lopera, curator at the Museo del Prado, Madrid, concludes that the presence of "Byzantine memories" is obvious in El Greco'due south mature works, though at that place are nevertheless some obscure issues apropos his Byzantine origins needing further illumination.^[viii]

Interpretation [edit]

Symbolism [edit]

The urban center of Toledo is at the very top of the hill in View of Toledo. Art historian, Walter Liedtke, speculates that El Greco wanted to emphasize the greatness of Toledo. Due to Toledo sitting at the top, information technology symbolized the metropolis's position beingness near heaven, still all the same at the top of hill making information technology of earthly possession. Using medieval tradition, El Greco incorporated landmarks such as the cathedral and the Alcázar which were positioned in a manner where he could create his version of Toledo, "a city of the spirit".^[viii] Toledo is the highest indicate it could be without beingness unnatural or in the sky, almost as if El Greco used the hills to work as a pedestal. It is thought that this painting'southward enigmatic symbolism could exist related to the mysticism that infused the city during the menstruation.

Comparison to View and Programme of Toledo [edit]

View of Toledo and View and Program of Toledo, on brandish at the El Greco Museum in Toledo, have the same urban center every bit the center of its image, but a much different appearance and message. For starters, View of Toledo was painted before the latter. Information technology has a more vibrant feeling with all the green and white to contrast the dark blue and black. View and Program of Toledo has a much warmer and earth tone to it with lots of browns. It is also an aerial perspective in comparing to View of Toledo. For being paintings depicting Toledo, they could not be whatever different. Even so, they were believed to be deputed by Pedro Salazar de Mendoza as they were found to be a part of his personal collection after his decease. Salazar was very passionate about Toledo in every aspect. Due to Salazar's love of the metropolis, information technology is believed to accept inspired El Greco to pigment both View of Toledo and View and Plan of Toledo.^[2]

This is the only other known landscape portrait past El Greco. It is believed to take been completed erstwhile between 1600 and 1610.

Come across also [edit]

100 Great Paintings, 1980 BBC series

Notes [edit]

^ Christiansen, Keith (October 2004). "El Greco (1541-1614)". world wide web.metmuseum.org . Retrieved 2020-11-18 .
^ ^a ^b ^c LIEDTKE, WALTER (2015). "3 Paintings by El Greco". Metropolitan Museum Periodical. 50: 12–41. doi:10.1086/685671. JSTOR 26455349. S2CID 192023558.
^ Baetjer, Katharine (1981). "El Greco". The Metropolitan Museum of Fine art Message. 39 (1): one–48. doi:10.2307/3259011. JSTOR 3259011.
^ Krumrine, Mary Louise (1993). "Color in El Greco". Arte Lombarda (105/107 (2-4)): 42–48. JSTOR 43132606.
^ BROWN, JONATHAN; KAGAN, RICHARD L. (1982). "View of Toledo". Studies in the History of Art. eleven: 18–7. JSTOR 42617938.
^ Casper, Andrew R. (2014). "Greeks abroad: (as)signing artistic identity in early on modern Europe". Renaissance Studies. 28 (3): 356–376. doi:10.1111/rest.12014. JSTOR 24424018.
^ Turner, Nicholas (2007). "A Proposal for El Greco equally a Draftsman". Primary Drawings. 45 (3): 291–324. JSTOR 20444515.
^ ^a ^b ^c D. Davies, "The Influence of Neo-Platonism on El Greco", twenty etc. D. Davies, the Byzantine Legacy in the Fine art of El Greco, 425–445^{[ full citation needed ]}

References [edit]

Scholarly articles and books [edit]

Baetjer, Katharine (1981). "El Greco". The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin. 39 (1): one–48. doi:ten.2307/3259011. JSTOR 3259011.
BROWN, JONATHAN; KAGAN, RICHARD L. (1982). "View of Toledo". Studies in the History of Fine art. 11: 18–VII. JSTOR 42617938.
Casper, Andrew R. (2014). "Greeks abroad: (as)signing artistic identity in early modernistic Europe". Renaissance Studies. 28 (3): 356–376. doi:10.1111/balance.12014. JSTOR 24424018.
Christiansen, Keith (October 2004). "El Greco (1541-1614)". www.metmuseum.org. Retrieved 2020-11-18
Davies, D. "The Influence of Neo-Platonism on El Greco", xx etc. D. Davies, the Byzantine Legacy in the Art of El Greco, 425–445
Krumrine, Mary Louise (1993). "Color in El Greco". Arte Lombarda (105/107 (ii-four)): 42–48. JSTOR 43132606.
LIEDTKE, WALTER (2015). "3 Paintings by El Greco". Metropolitan Museum Journal. l: 12–41. doi:10.1086/685671. JSTOR 26455349. S2CID 192023558.
Turner, Nicholas (2007). "A Proposal for El Greco as a Draftsman". Primary Drawings. 45 (3): 291–324. JSTOR 20444515.

External links [edit]

Metropolitan Museum of Art – View of Toledo
Essay on this painting from the book Dazzler and Terror past Brian A. Oard
Painting of El Greco