In Focus: El Greco

Excellent online lecture from the National Gallery on El Greco.

Sian Walters led us clearly through the life and work of the 16th century artist El Greco. She made good use of pictures from the gallery’s own collection but did widen her examples with great illustrations.

I hadn’t realised that El Greco spent time in Venice and may have spent time training with Titian. Walters was very good at pointing out where the influence of this time might be seen in his work from the use of colour to specific poses or compositions.

She spent quite a bit of the time looking at the great altarpieces in Toledo and talked about how the Counter-Reformation city influenced his work and how and why he reverted to some of his original Greek Orthodox training. 

I had only known the basics about El Greco before this talk and it certainly filled some of the gaps in my knowledge. I also got some good tips of how to visit Toledo and where to stay!

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