el greco at the onassis cultural center

“Dormition of the Virgin, Syros” by El Greco, The Onassis Cultural Center, NY

A ravishing gathering of fifty religious paintings is really two shows in one. The first follows the blossoming of an Old Master, the painter El Greco (1541-1614), born Domenikos Theotokopoulos on the island of Crete. The second traces an East-West mashup in Greek icon painting, in which the stately flatness of the Byzantine style met the more naturalistic perspective of the Italian Renaissance, influenced by Michelangelo, Raphael, and Titian (in whose workshop El Greco is thought to have apprenticed). — The New Yorker

“The Coronation of the Virgin” by El Greco, The Onassis Cultural Center, NY

The show’s grand finale is the oil study “The Coronation of the Virgin” (c. 1603), painted as if El Greco were gazing into a concave mirror reflecting the vault of heaven. — The New Yorker

“Dormition of the Virgin, Syros” by El Greco

“The Coronation of the Virgin” by El Greco

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