El Greco`s "Burial Of Count" Essay, Research Paper

This painting is the Burial of Count Orgaz by El Greco (the Geek) his real name

Domenikos Theotocopoulos. It hangs on the wall in the vestibule of the church of

Santo Tome in Toledo, Spain and was painted in 1586. It is oil on canvas and was

made to fit the very wall it hangs today. The painting does have a Round top

making it a very odd fit for anywhere but the church for it to hang. The artist

used many dark shades Blue and blacks with yellow and red in the items of

importance and detail. White was very common. There was only one other color

sort of hid in the robe of St Augastine,Green. He put alot of details in the

things that he wanted the audience to pay attention to. The cross for example on

the middle right, the keys to the gates of heaven held by saint peter on the top

left and a nice touch with the priest with the skull on his rob on the bottom

right. This is the first completely personal work by the artist. There are no

longer any references to Roman or Venetian formulas or motifs. He has succeeded

in eliminating any description of space. There is no ground, no horizon, no sky

and no perspective. Accordingly, there is no conflict, and a convincing

expression of a supernatural space is achieved. The painting has a couple of

oddities with the boy pointing to the seal on the St. Stephen’s robe but his

other hand is sort of contorted. The faces of the people seem to be stuck here

and there and don?t seem to be natural flowing like a crowd should be in the

mist of a vision .We get a glimpse of the artist above St Augustine?s Hat as

he looks up at his own art. And the boy is his son turns out to be his son. The

painting is very clearly divided into two zones, the heavenly above and the

terrestrial below, but there is little feeling of duality. The upper and lower

zones are brought together compositionally (e.g., by the standing figures, by

their varied participation in the earthly and heavenly event, by the torches,

cross, etc. The grand circular mandorla-like pattern of the two Saints descended

from Heaven echoes the pattern formed by the Virgin and Saint John the Baptist,

and the action is given explicit expression. The point of equilibrium is the

outstretched hand poised in the void between the two Saints, whence the mortal

body descends, and the Soul, in the medieval form of a transparent and naked

child, is taken up by the angel to be received in Heaven. The supernatural

appearance of the Saints is enhanced by the splendor of color and light of their

gold vestments. The powerful cumulative emotion expressed by the group of

participants is suffused and sustained through the composition by the splendor,

variety and vitality of the color and of light. The painting illustrates a

popular local legend. In 1312, a certain Don Gonzalo Ruiz, native of Toledo, and

Se?or of the town of Orgaz, died (the family received the title of Count, by

which he is generally known, only later). He was a pious man who, among other

charitable acts, left moneys for the enlargement and adornment of the church of

Santo Tome (El Greco’s parish church). At his burial, Saint Stephen and Saint

Augustine intervened to lay him to rest. The occasion for the commission of the

painting for the chapel, in which the Se?or was buried, was the resumption of

the tribute payable to the church by the town of Orgaz, which had been withheld

for over two centuries. All in all a very interesting piece of art. Though he is

kind of a nock off of Michelangelo.