Presents a survey of the development of this genre in Spanish art from the 15th century to the early decades of the 20th, through a selection of 87 works.

Tracing the contours of Picasso's evolving dialogue with the master of phantasmagorical figuration In his youth, Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) frequented the Prado Museum, rejecting a formal education in favor of studying the works of the old masters himself. El Greco (1541-1614) particularly captivated his attention, and his admiration soon bloomed into inspiration. Signature features of El Greco's style were regenerated by Picasso's reverent, if also subversive, hand. During his Blue Period (1901-04), the artist incorporated El Greco's penchant for elongated figures, sober backgrounds and a touch of mysticism and mannerism; during his late career, he more explicitly embraced his fascination with the Spanish Golden Age, evoking El Greco's palette of warm browns and ochers. Indeed, Picasso helped spearhead a resurgence of interest in El Greco, whose work--while acclaimed by his contemporaries in the 16th century for its undeniable ingenuity--was largely forgotten following his death, until the early 1900s. By engaging in a dialogue with his predecessor, Picasso established a point of historical continuity in his work--a grounding presence in the midst of his radical formal interventions. This volume juxtaposes 40 masterpieces by the artists, underscoring the depth and longevity of this engagement.

Art and the Religious Image in El Greco’s Italy is the first book-length examination of the early career of one of the early modern period’s most notoriously misunderstood figures. Born around 1541, Domenikos Theotokopoulos began his career as an icon painter on the island of Crete. He is best known, under the name “El Greco,” for the works he created while in Spain, paintings that have provoked both rapt admiration and scornful disapproval since his death in 1614. But the nearly ten years he spent in Venice and Rome, from 1567 to 1576, have remained underexplored until now. Andrew Casper’s examination of this period allows us to gain a proper understanding of El Greco’s entire career and reveals much about the tumultuous environment for religious painting after the Council of Trent. Art and the Religious Image in El Greco’s Italy is a new book in the Art History Publication Initiative (AHPI), a collaborative grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Thanks to the AHPI grant, this book will be available in popular e-book formats.

A visually stunning examination of El Greco’s work that considers the artist’s constant reinvention and professional drive Renowned for a singular artistic vision, Domenikos Theotokopoulos, known as El Greco (1541–1614), developed his distinctive painting style as he assiduously pursued professional success. This fresh and engaging survey of El Greco’s work explores varied aspects of the artist’s career—his aesthetic education in Italy, the mixed reception of his mature works in Spain, his uncompromising approach to business, and the baroque logistics of his Toledo workshop—and reveals the depth of El Greco’s astounding ambition. The impressive volume focuses in particular on his 1577–79 altarpiece paintings for the Church of Santo Domingo el Antiguo in Toledo—among them the magnificent Assumption of the Virgin—which heralded the artist’s arrival in Spain after productive periods of formation and re-formation in Crete, Venice, and Rome. Lavishly illustrated and clothbound with gilded edges, this publication features reproductions and scholarly discussions of more than 60 works ranging from large-scale canvases to intimate panels, with essays that elucidate the motives and meanings behind the artist’s constantly changing and inventive approach.