Word: painterly
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Abstract landscape painter Albert Alcalay once said that as an artist, “you are an explorer of yourself...
...genius known as El Greco started his working life as icon painter Doménikos Theotokópoulos on the Greek island of Crete. He ended it as the undisputed giant of 16th century Spanish art. Ever since they were rediscovered in the 19th century, his dramatic religious set pieces and dark, melancholy portraits have been regarded as groundbreaking, and 20th century modernists claimed him as a brother. But he used an alchemy all his own to fuse old and new for the greatest possible impact - at least, that's what one takes away from the exhibition of his work...
...contemporaries, he never painted himself. Our only clue to El Greco's appearance may lie in The Adoration of the Shepherds (ca. 1612-1614), which he painted to hang above his own tomb. The central figure kneeling before the Christ child is, some scholars believe, an image of the painter. A man with similar features appears in other works, sometimes with the direct gaze typical of self-portraits. El Greco often put his adopted city, Toledo, in the background of his works. A blurred view of its fortified walls can be seen at the foot of the Virgin...
...rushing river. The silvery buildings are emphasized by dark halos; an unseen sun makes the clouds glow. No religious drama is going on anywhere: the only figures are manikins fishing, swimming, washing clothes. Yet this may be the most spiritual work he ever produced - a fitting symbol for a painter devoted to illuminating life's ethereal side...
...family of Georges de la Chapelle, the weaver hired to implement the designs. Nicolas flirts with Georges's blind daughter Alienor, thereby upsetting Georges and his wife Christine, who are already anxious because of the nearly impossible deadline Le Viste has set for the job's completion. But the painter is also compelled by the mother and daughter, and they inspire him to alter some features of the woman in his designs...