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El Greco: Ambition and Defiance

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El Greco Cover 24 Inch

The Art Institute of Chicago, 2020

Purchase from the Art Institute Museum Shop.
Available to booksellers from Yale University Press.

Renowned for his 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 highlights El Greco’s astounding ambition as it explores varied aspects of the artist’s career: his education in Italy, the mixed reception of his mature work in Spain, his uncompromising approach to business, and the complicated logistics of his Toledo workshop.

This impressive volume focuses in particular on his 1577–79 altarpiece paintings for the Church of Santo Domingo el Antiguo in Toledo—including 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 canvases to intimate panels, complemented by essays that elucidate the motives and meanings behind El Greco’s inventive approach.

Edited by Rebecca J. Long

With essays by Keith Christiansen, Richard L. Kagan, Guillaume Kientz, Rebecca J. Long, Felipe Pereda, Jose Riello, and Leticia Ruiz Gomez, and contributions by Jena K. Carvana

208 pages, 9 × 13 in.
137 color + b/w ills.

Hardcover $50 ($45 members)
ISBN: 978-0-300-25082-4

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