Allegory of the Camaldolese Order | |
---|---|
Spanish: Alegoría de la Orden de los Camaldulenses | |
Artist | El Greco |
Year | ca. 1600 |
Medium | oil on canvas |
Dimensions | 124 x 90 cm (48.8 x 35.4 in) |
Location | Instituto Valencia of Don Juan, Madrid, Spain |
Allegory of the Camaldolese Order is a composition by El Greco and his workshop that survives in two paintings, one at the Instituto Valencia de Don Juan in Madrid and the other at the Museo del Patriarca in Valencia. [1] The paintings depict a bird's-eye view of the "ideal monastery" according to the Camaldolese, [2] and were likely commissioned as part of Fray Juan de Castañiza's (c. 1545–1599) petition to Philip II in 1597 to establish the benedictine monastic order in Spain. [3]
Both of the paintings are nearly identical in composition, though the one held at the Instituto Valencia of Don Juan is on a slightly smaller canvas. In the mountainous landscape, within a circular forest clearing, are individual hermitages arranged into rows, with a central complex for group worship. In the foreground on either side of a tabernacle stand saints central to the foundation of the Camaldolese: Saint Benedict to the left, and Saint Romuald to the right. Romuald holds a model of the circular monastery complex in his hand. The tabernacle frames a poem in Latin praising Saint Romuald, and Latin text below identifies the image as a "Description of the Hermetical Life."
It is unlikely that El Greco had ever been to a Camaldolese monastery and he likely drew inspiration from other sources. Harold Wethey was among the first to note that the composition was likely derived from a print depicting the Holy Hermitage of Camaldoli in the mountains near Arezzo, Italy. [3] Robert Byron and David Talbot Rice argued that the arrangement of the monastery resembles the depiction of the Holy City of Jerusalem in the Cretan School of post-Byzantine icon painting, in which El Greco was a master before he emigrated to Italy and Spain. [4]
Allegory of the Camaldolese Order | |
---|---|
Spanish: Alegoría de la Orden de los Camaldulenses | |
Artist | El Greco |
Year | 1597 |
Medium | oil on canvas |
Dimensions | 138 x 108 cm (54.3 x 42.5 in) |
Location | Museo del Partriarca, Valencia, Spain |
The canvas held at the Instituto Valencia of Don Juan bears escutcheon of Mariana de Mendoza of Toledo and that of her husband Pedro Lasso de la Vega, Conde de los Arcos. The two were known to own eight original works by El Greco, [5] as well as eighteen works depicting hermits. [6] The Allegory of the Camaldolese, however, was probably the only painting that they expressly commissioned from El Greco, showing their commitment to Fray Juan de Castañiza's project and their continuing support of the artist. [5] It is unknown who commissioned the painting now at the Museo del Patriarca, though it bears the arms of Juan de Ribera, Archbishop of Valencia and Patriarch of Antioch. Fernando Marías suggested it may have been a gift from Mariana and Pedro Lasso to Ribera rather than being a personal commission. [7]
Doménikos Theotokópoulos, most widely known as El Greco, was a Greek painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. El Greco was a nickname, and the artist normally signed his paintings with his full birth name in Greek letters often adding the word Κρής, which means "Cretan" in Ancient Greek.
The Museo del Prado, officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It houses collections of European art, dating from the 12th century to the early 20th century, based on the former Spanish royal collection, and the single best collection of Spanish art. Founded as a museum of paintings and sculpture in 1819, it also contains important collections of other types of works. The numerous works by Francisco Goya, the single most extensively represented artist, as well as by Hieronymus Bosch, El Greco, Peter Paul Rubens, Titian, and Diego Velázquez, are some of the highlights of the collection. Velázquez and his keen eye and sensibility were also responsible for bringing much of the museum's fine collection of Italian masters to Spain, now one of the largest outside of Italy.
The Camaldolese Hermits of Mount Corona, commonly called Camaldolese, is a monastic order of Pontifical Right for men founded by Saint Romuald. Its name is derived from the Holy Hermitage of Camaldoli, high in the mountains of central Italy, near the city of Arezzo. Its members add the nominal letters E.C.M.C. after their names to indicate their membership in the congregation. Apart from the Roman Catholic monasteries, in recent times ecumenical Christian hermitages with a Camaldolese spirituality have arisen as well.
Jusepe de Ribera was a Spanish painter and printmaker. Ribera, Francisco de Zurbarán, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, and the singular Diego Velázquez, are regarded as the major artists of Spanish Baroque painting. Referring to a series of Ribera exhibitions held in the late 20th century, Philippe de Montebello wrote "If Ribera's status as the undisputed protagonist of Neapolitan painting had ever been in doubt, it was no longer. Indeed, to many it seemed that Ribera emerged from these exhibitions as not simply the greatest Neapolitan artist of his age but one of the outstanding European masters of the seventeenth century." Jusepe de Ribera has also been referred to as José de Ribera, Josep de Ribera, and was called Lo Spagnoletto by his contemporaries and early historians.
Constance of Portugal, was Queen of Castile by her marriage to Ferdinand IV.
View of 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 Art in New York City.
The Burial of the Count of Orgaz is a 1586 painting by El Greco, a prominent Renaissance painter, sculptor, and architect of Greek origin. Widely considered among his finest works, it illustrates a popular local legend of his time. An exceptionally large painting, it is divided into two sections, heavenly above and terrestrial below, but it gives little impression of duality, since the upper and lower sections are brought together compositionally.
Francesc Ribalta , also known as Francisco Ribaltá or de Ribalta, was a Spanish painter of the Baroque period, mostly of religious subjects.
Friar Juan Bautista Maíno, or Mayno was a Spanish Baroque painter.
Friar Nicolás Borrás (1530–1610) was a Spanish Renaissance Catholic monk and painter, active in Valencia.
The Real Colegio Seminario del Corpus Christi is a former Roman Catholic school and seminary founded in 1583 in the Spanish city of Valencia. It is located in calle de la Nau in the old city, opposite La Nau, the former Universidad Literaria.
The Nobleman with his Hand on his Chest is an oil painting by El Greco, one of the earliest works painted by the artist in Spain.
The Monastery of Santa Maria de la Murta is a former monastery of the order of the Hieronymites located in the Valley of La Murta in Alzira (Valencia), Spain.
View and Plan of Toledo is a landscape painting by El Greco. The image is notable for its juxtaposition of the view of Toledo with the trompe l'oeil map of the city's streets. In the composition, El Greco also included an allegory of the Tagus River, a scene of the Virgin Mary placing a chasuble on Saint Ildefonsus, and an elevation of the Tavera Hospital floating on a cloud. It was probably originally commissioned by Pedro Salazar de Mendoza and is currently preserved in the El Greco Museum in Toledo, Spain.
The Hospital de Tavera, also known as the Hospital de San Juan Bautista, Hospital de afuera, or simply as Hospital Tavera, is an important building of Renaissance architecture located is in the Spanish city of Toledo. It was built between 1541 and 1603 by order of the Cardinal Tavera. This hospital is dedicated to John the Baptist and also served as pantheon for its patron, Cardinal Tavera. Initially it began to be constructed under the supervision of Alonso de Covarrubias, being succeeded by other architects, with Bartolomé Bustamante finishing the work.
Saint Sebastian, or Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian is an autograph work by the famed artist Doménikos Theotokópoulos, commonly known as El Greco. It shows the Martyred Saint in an atypical kneeling posture which has led some scholars to believe it to be a compositional quotation of various works by other great masters whom the artist admired. The painting is currently on display in the Palencia Cathedral.
Portrait of Fernando Niño de Guevara is a 1600 painting of cardinal Fernando Niño de Guevara by El Greco, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Juan Alonso Villabrille y Ron was a Spanish Baroque sculptor.