El Greco. Retratos de ilustres varones para el más allá

Abstract

El Greco is always defined first and foremost as a religious painter. The question addressed in this paper is the relationship between his secular portraits (El Greco painted some thirty portraits in Toledo) and the depictions of religious figures he made in Toledo. All his models are defined as illustrious men, whom Domenikos Theotokopoulos glorifies through painting. After defining what portraiture is, which should not be considered within the confines of a genre, we analyse more specifically the way in which the models in his religious “portraits” are visibly in movement, animated by an divine “inspiration”. To this end, we examine in particular the Illescas Saint Ildefonso (1603-1605), which we relate to the Saint Jerome (1610-1614) of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Portrait of Francisco de Pisa (1610-1614) curated by the Kimbell Art Museum and the Portrait of Cardinal Tavera (c. 1608-1614).

Keywords

• Toledo
• El Greco
• portrait
• saint Ildefonso
• Illescas
• saint Hieronymus