Title Survival and Revival of the Byzantine Tradition in the Art of El Greco
Author email zacharias2@seznam.cz
About author Zacharias, Jan — M.A. student, Charles University in Prague. 3–5 Ovoć ny Square, Prague 1, Czech Republic, 11636.
In the section Western Art from the Middle Ages to the 20th Century
Year 2014 Volume 4 Pages 295300
Type of article RAR Index UDK 7.034(460) Index BBK 85.14
Abstract

There is no doubt that El Greco was connected with Byzantine and Postbyzantine art. He was trained as an icon painter in Crete and certain elements (formal or iconographic) of Byzantine or Postbyzantine art are evident in his Toledo period. In his comments to The Lives of Vasari we read that El Greco appreciated icon painting (la manera griega enseña de difi cultades ingeniosas) more than the art of Giotto. I think that the elements of Byzantine art are obvious in his rendering of drapery, where he uses typical white highlights — an important feature expressing divine light, derivated from icon painting.
An example of revival of Byzantine iconography also can be seen in the image of Christ. El Greco painted the iconographic type of Christ Pantocrator several times. In the structure of Christ’s face we can observe, how El Greco used a Byzantine model. Also the rhomboidal form of Christ’s halo is derivated from a halo used in Byzantine and Postbyzantine art, which originally formed part of a star-like halo of the Divine Wisdom.

Keywords
Reference Zacharias, Jan. Survival and Revival of the Byzantine Tradition in the Art of El Greco. Actual Problems of Theory and History of Art: Collection of articles. Vol. 4. Eds: Svetlana V. Maltseva, Anna V. Zakharova. St. Petersburg, NP-Print Publ., 2014, pp. 295–300. ISSN 2312-2129.
Publication Article language russian
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