Christ Carrying the Cross | |
---|---|
Artist | El Greco |
Year | 1580 |
Medium | oil on canvas |
Dimensions | 105 cm× 79 cm(41 in× 31 in) |
Location | Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
Accession | 1975.1.145 |
Christ Carrying the Cross is an oil painting by El Greco, produced early in his Toledo period circa de 1580. [1] The picture depicts Christ in a moment of personal reflection as he carries the cross to his death, therefore committing the ultimate sacrifice for humankind. In the painting, Christ's eyes are lifted up to the heavens as he begins his walk towards his crucifixion. His gentle hands wrap around the cross as a stormy night floods the background. Christ Carrying the Cross is an oil painting, 105x79cm. [2] The painting, one of numerous similar paintings by El Greco, is currently in the El Greco room in the New York art collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. [3]
Born in 1541 in Crete, El Greco's official name is Doménikos Theotokópoulos. [4] El Greco acquired this name while living in Italy, no doubt studying the classical style of art. In Italy, El Greco lived in Venice, and studied under Titian, one of the most profound Italian Renaissance artists. [5] After three years, El Greco moved from Venice to Rome to continue his studies and works under the patronage of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese. [1] While in Rome, Greco continued to develop his own personal artistic style, combining the styles of the Byzantine era, the Renaissance era, and the Mannerist era. [6] To read a full version of El Greco's life, history, and artistic style click here.
Because he combined the stylistic ideas of three different eras and conceptions of art, El Greco's paintings were truly unique. Overall, they captivated a new essence about the idea of the body. Greco's figures often were lengthy, elongated forms that felt almost fluid in nature. [7] His painting usually carried the notion of Romanticism, focusing on the suffering and love through pain and contention. [6] El Greco also was inspired by the techniques and ideals of the Renaissance period, specifically the idea that a perfect human body was a pure connection to the divine. [8] Most of Greco's works featured figures that related to this divine and iconoclastic sense of being. However, El Greco's figures were often distorted and elongated, contrasting the sheer proportionate perfection of the Renaissance bodily form. [8] Instead, his paintings and works connected to a divine presence by through strong, visual, emotional appeals. This reflection of strong and purposeful emotion stems from the Mannerist age, captivating the idea of an aggressive, emotional, and almost violent perspective and strong emotional whirlwind to captive the narration and feeling behind the piece. [9] This was often the structural layout in most of Greco's works.
El Greco also found the use of color to be of absolute importance. [10] Establishing an aesthetic color palette was sometimes more important than the actual figure itself. Greco often had a tendency to use deep, full, rich colors to motivate the emotional expression in the piece to affect the viewers mood. The saturated hues of navy, black, purple, and red allowed for the viewer to be taken to another dimension. Greco's use of color captivates a sense of wrathfulness and divine devotion that seems other worldly.
The main idea of Greco's painting style was to dramatize the narration, emotion, and message of each piece. El Greco often used oil paints on canvas. [4]
The painting, Christ Carrying the Cross, had been owned by Sir William Stirling Maxwell (1818–1878), General Archibald Stirling, and Lieutenant Colonel William Stirling. In 1953 it was acquired by Robert Lehman, and in 1975 it was acquired as part of his collection by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
It is on view in the Met museum's Gallery 958. [2]
In Christ Carrying the Cross, there are a multitude of minute details that help narrate the raw, expressive emotion of the work. Overall, the aching look in Christ's eyes show both a plea for mercy and an understanding of what is to come. The painting itself was inspired by and parallels Michelangelo's Risen Christ. [5] The work also relates directly to the Northern Italian narration of the way to calvary. This narration allows the artist to express the human emotions of Christ rather than his projected divine expression. [11] In this work, the Northern Italian per narration allows Christ to beg for mercy while also having an understanding of his role in God's plan to forgive humankind for their sins. In addition to Christ's emotional expression, the Northern Italian narration of the crucifixion story allowed Christ to be an isolated being, separated from the whirlwind of the crowd surrounding his crucifixion. [2]
On the way to calvary, Christ is carrying the cross to his own crucifixion in Jerusalem. [12] This painting depicts a moment along the way where Christ stops amid a storm to communicate and reflect to the heavens before committing the ultimate sacrifice for humankind.
Many of the emotional details in this piece are shown in Christ himself. Below is a table elaborating on a few details from the painting that assist with the narration of the piece. [13]
Detail of the work: | Location of the detail: | Meaning of the detail: | Source: |
---|---|---|---|
Tears in Christ's gaze | Christ's eyes | The oversized tears in Christ's eyes demonstrate the moment where Christ is both pleading to the heavens and accepting his fate and sacrifice for humankind. Christ's tears are a direct expression to human emotion, relating to the tenderness and expressiveness of humankind, connecting both on a narrational and divine level. [13] | Paragraph 4 |
Crown of Thorns | On top of Christ's head | The crown of thorns was placed on Christ's head as a mockery from the guards. The guards were taunting Jesus, as he lay nailed to the cross, nagging him for being the King of the Jews. However, the crown no longer has a negative association. The crown now demonstrates that Christ died a king. In addition, the thorns and blood represent the outcast and torture of Christ leading up to his crucifixion.[ citation needed ] | |
Implied line | Gaze to the heavens | An implied line is a suggested connection between two object on the same plane. In this case, Christ's line of sight is directed towards the heavens. Because of the strong cultural association with eye contact, it becomes the strongest form of an implied line. It allows the connection from an individual to pierce through to another object. In this work, by looking up, Christ is affirming and connecting to the God moments before his crucifixion. [14] | https://artsandculture.google.com/usergallery/implied-lines/-QIS4P1SqwUOLQ |
The background of Christ Carrying the Cross is an overwhelming storm: lightning, thunder, and possible rain. The clouds gather in dark hues to darken the mood and narration of the piece. Usually, storms are associated with feelings of fear and unease: both feelings that are highly applicable to the human nature of this portrait. The storm clouds also have breaks of light, allowing the viewer to understand Christ's acceptance of his sacrifice as he communicates and reflects with the heavens.
Often, Christ imagery is associated with a biblical passage or text. In this case, the background illustrates Matthew 8:23-27. [15] In this text, Christ reminds the disciples of their faith, even in moments of struggle and fear. This same narration is shown in Christ Carrying the Cross. Although the storm seems to be raging in the background in a moment of death, Christ reminds us that God is with us and is with him at all times. There is no need to have doubt or fear in the eyes of the Lord.
This painting is a prime example of religious imagery. Not only does the work feature Christ, a religious, iconoclastic figure, but it also displays an array of biblical passages and narratives throughout the work. As mentioned earlier, the background of the piece demonstrates Matthew 8:23-27. [15] The actual narration of the crucifixion is written about in all four gospels of the Bible: Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John.
Mannerism is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, when the Baroque style largely replaced it. Northern Mannerism continued into the early 17th century.
In art, chiaroscuro is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for the use of contrasts of light to achieve a sense of volume in modelling three-dimensional objects and figures. Similar effects in cinema, and black and white and low-key photography, are also called chiaroscuro.
Jacopo Carucci or Carrucci, usually known as Jacopo (da) Pontormo or simply Pontormo, was an Italian Mannerist painter and portraitist from the Florentine School. His work represents a profound stylistic shift from the calm perspectival regularity that characterized the art of the Florentine Renaissance. He is famous for his use of twining poses, coupled with ambiguous perspective; his figures often seem to float in an uncertain environment, unhampered by the forces of gravity.
The Descent from the Cross, or Deposition of Christ, is the scene, as depicted in art, from the Gospels' accounts of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus taking Christ down from the cross after his crucifixion. In Byzantine art the topic became popular in the 9th century, and in the West from the 10th century. The Descent from the Cross is the 13th Station of the Cross, and is also the sixth of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
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.
Christ Falling on the Way to Calvary, also known as Lo Spasimo or Il Spasimo di Sicilia, is a painting by the Italian High Renaissance painter Raphael, of c. 1514–16, now in the Museo del Prado in Madrid. It is an important work for the development of his style.
The Descent from the Cross is the central panel of a triptych painting by the Baroque artist Peter Paul Rubens in 1612–1614. It is still in its original place, the Cathedral of Our Lady, Antwerp, Belgium. The painting is considered to be one of Rubens' masterpieces. The painting depicts the moment when the body of Jesus Christ is taken down from the cross after his crucifixion. The subject was one Rubens returned to again and again in his career. The artwork was commissioned on September 7, 1611, by the Confraternity of the Arquebusiers, whose patron saint was St. Christopher.
The Opening of the Fifth Seal was painted in the last years of El Greco's life for a side-altar of the church of Saint John the Baptist outside the walls of Toledo. Before 1908, El Greco's painting had been referred to as Profane Love. The scholar Manuel B. Cossio had doubts about the title and suggested the Opening of the Fifth Seal. The Metropolitan Museum, where the painting is kept, comments: "the picture is unfinished and much damaged and abraded."
Dormition of the Virgin is a tempera painting on panel executed by El Greco near the end of his Cretan period, probably before 1567. El Greco's signature on the base of the central candelabrum was discovered in 1983. The discovery of the Dormition led to the attribution of three other signed works of "Doménicos" to El Greco and then to the acceptance as authentic of more works, signed or not.
The Disrobing of Christ or El Expolio is a painting by El Greco begun in the summer of 1577 and completed in the spring of 1579 for the High Altar of the sacristy of the Cathedral of Toledo, where it still normally hangs. In late 2013 it was on temporary display at the Prado in Madrid, following a period of cleaning and conservation work there; it was returned to Toledo in 2014. It is one of El Greco's most famous works. A document dated July 2, 1577 which refers to this painting is the earliest record of El Greco's presence in Spain. The commission for the painting was secured thanks to El Greco's friendship from Rome with Luis, the son of Diego de Castilla, the dean of the Cathedral of Toledo. De Castilla senior also arranged El Greco's other major commission, on which he worked simultaneously, the paintings for the Toledan church of Santo Domingo el Antiguo.
Cretan school describes an important school of icon painting, under the umbrella of post-Byzantine art, which flourished while Crete was under Venetian rule during the late Middle Ages, reaching its climax after the Fall of Constantinople, becoming the central force in Greek painting during the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. The Cretan artists developed a particular style of painting under the influence of both Eastern and Western artistic traditions and movements; the most famous product of the school, El Greco, was the most successful of the many artists who tried to build a career in Western Europe, and also the one who left the Byzantine style farthest behind him in his later career.
Michele Taddeo di Giovanni Bono, known as Giambono was an Italian painter, whose work reflected the International Gothic style with a Venetian influence. He designed the mosaics of the Birth of the Virgin and Presentation in the Temple. His best known paintings are the Man of Sorrows and the St. Peter.
Italian Renaissance painting is the painting of the period beginning in the late 13th century and flourishing from the early 15th to late 16th centuries, occurring in the Italian Peninsula, which was at that time divided into many political states, some independent but others controlled by external powers. The painters of Renaissance Italy, although often attached to particular courts and with loyalties to particular towns, nonetheless wandered the length and breadth of Italy, often occupying a diplomatic status and disseminating artistic and philosophical ideas.
The Crucifixion of Saint Peter is a fresco painting by the Italian Renaissance master Michelangelo Buonarroti. It is housed in the Cappella Paolina, Vatican Palace, in the Vatican City, Rome. It is the last fresco executed by Michelangelo.
Christ Carrying the Cross on his way to his crucifixion is an episode included in the Gospel of John, and a very common subject in art, especially in the fourteen Stations of the Cross, sets of which are now found in almost all Roman Catholic churches, as well as in many Lutheran churches and Anglican churches. However, the subject occurs in many other contexts, including single works and cycles of the Life of Christ or the Passion of Christ. Alternative names include the Procession to Calvary, Road to Calvary and Way to Calvary, Calvary or Golgotha being the site of the crucifixion outside Jerusalem. The actual route taken is defined by tradition as the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem, although the specific path of this route has varied over the centuries and continues to be the subject of debate.
The Crucifixion is a life sized painting by the Venetian artist Titian, completed in 1558 and presently hanging in the sanctuary of the church of San Domenico, Ancona. Jesus Christ is shown crucified, with Saint Mary and Saint John standing either side of the cross in the Stabat Mater tradition. The kneeling figure is of Saint Dominic. The canvas was completed during Titian's fifth decade of painting, and is one of the works marking a shift toward his extensive exploration of tragedy and human suffering.
The Laocoön is an oil painting created between 1610 and 1614 by Greek painter El Greco. It is part of a collection at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C..
Andreas Ritzos also known as (Andreas Rico, Ricio or Rizo) was a Greek icon painter from Crete. Ritzos is considered one of the founding fathers of the Cretan School. He was affiliated with Angelos Akotantos. Most of his work stylistically follows the traditional maniera greca. His children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren were also painters. He was one of the most influential painters of the Cretan School along with Andreas Pavias and Angelos Akotantos. He influenced the works of Georgios Klontzas, Nikolaos Tzafouris, Theophanes the Cretan, Michael Damaskinos and El Greco. According to the Institute for Neohellenic Research, sixty of his paintings have survived.
Agony in the Garden is a 1590 oil on canvas painting by El Greco or his studio, dating to his second stay in Toledo and still showing the major influence of Titian on his work. It is now on display in the Toledo Art Museum in Toledo, Ohio.