'El Greco's Library' exhibition in Madrid

MADRID - This April, the Museo del Prado, the Biblioteca Nacional de España and Fundación El Greco 2014 are presenting the exhibition El Greco’s Library.

The event has the purpose to reconstruct the theoretical and literary roots of El Greco’s art through 39 books, four of which belonged to him, that have been identified from two inventories compiled by the artist’s son Jorge Manuel in 1614 and 1621.

The exhibition is completed by three manuscripts, nine prints that probably inspired compositions by El Greco and five paintings which reveal the relationship between his pictorial output and the books in his library.

This gallery also encourages a reflection on the traditional interpretations of El Greco and his work, based on the books that he owned and on his annotations to his copies of Vitruvius’s treatise and Vasari’s Lives.

Also on display for the public eye there are three manuscripts; the original inventories of 1614 and 1621; a letter from the artist to Cardinal Alessandro Farnese; nine prints, most of them by Cornelis Cort and Dürer, which were key reference points for the painter; and five paintings, including Boy blowing on an Ember and The Annunciation, which reveal the relationships between the artist’s pictorial creations and his books.

In total, the exhibition includes 56 works that introduce visitors to what El Greco read and wrote, his knowledge and thinking, with the aim of understanding the ideas on the art of painting that underpinned his creative activities.

The five sections of the exhibition reconstruct the evolution of the artist’s career and analyse the way in which he saw painting as a speculative science.

The largest section focuses on books on architecture, which highlight El Greco’s interest in the universal nature of this discipline and its influence on the status of painting as a liberal art.

On El Greco’s death in Toledo on 7 April 1614, his possessions included 130 books that are partly known from two inventories compiled by his son Jorge Manuel Theotokopouli.