Burial of the Count of Orgaz
The Burial of the Count of Orgaz (Spanish: El entierro del conde de Orgaz ) is a 4.80 m high and 3.60 m wide painting by Domínikos Theotokópoulos (Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος), called El Greco (“the Greek”), from the Years 1586–1588. Today it is located in a side chapel of the parish church of Santo Tomé in the former Spanish capital Toledo ; it is seen by well over a thousand visitors every day.
history
Gonzalo Ruiz de Toledo was the landlord ( señor ) of Orgaz , a small town about 35 km southeast of Toledo, and benefactor of the parish of Santo Tomé in Toledo, his hometown, for whose benefit he in his will an annual delivery of “two mutton , eight pairs of chickens, two bottles of wine, two loads of firewood and 800 maravedis ”donated. In the people of Toledo, the legend of a benefactor gradually developed, at whose burial (1312 or 1321) St. Stephen and Augustine were present.
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In 1564, however, the will had to be sued at the Royal Court of Justice in Valladolid , as the heirs of the Count and the people of Orgaz had long refused to perform the intended services. After positive interference by the Spanish crown and a successful trial, a considerable sum of money was raised in 1569 for the benefit of the parish of Santo Tomé.
In a contract dated March 15, 1586, the responsible parish priest Andrés Núñez, the mayor and El Greco, who was a member of the parish of Santo Tomé, agreed to make a painting in which “a gathering of mourners, St. Stephen and Augustine (one at the feet and the other at the head of the deceased), clerics , believers and an open sky ”should be seen.
After the completion of the picture, however, there were financial disputes between the painter, who demanded 1200 ducats for his work, and the parish of Santo Tomé, which did not want to pay this sum - which they considered too high - because the price for the most expensive one to date El Greco's work was only 800 ducats. Two experts were then commissioned to estimate the value of the picture at 1,600 ducats. In the end, even the Holy See was called upon to mediate, but Pope Sixtus V left it at the 1200 ducats originally requested by the painter (without frames and carvings). So the picture was given to the parish church in 1588.
Image composition
The image is built on two levels, which embody the earthly and the heavenly world. The two levels are separated and are only connected to one another by a few details (lecture cross), but above all by the looks of some of the people shown. The most important figures in the two levels of the picture can be identified; earlier there were probably even more - B. two - today unknown - people identified by red dagger crosses on their coats as members of the Order of Santiago . All are connected to one another and to the viewer in a variety of ways:
Lower image plane
1. Count of Orgaz 2. St. Augustine 3rd St. Stephen 4. Jorge Manuel Theotokopoulos (son of El Greco) 5. Franciscans 6. Augustinians 7. Diego de Covarrubias y Leyva , humanist 8. Trinitarians 9. El Greco (self-portrait) 10. Juan da Silva, notary 11. Antonio Covarrubias y Leyva , Scholar 12. Chaplain 13. Andrés Núñez, parish priest and principal
Upper image plane
1. Christ 2. Mary 3. St. John the Baptist 4. Peter 5. St. Paul 6th Philip II 7th St. Apostle Thomas 8. King David with the harp 9. Moses 10. Noah with the attribute of the ark 11. Angel 12. St. Mary Magdalene 13. Lazarus
Details
Lower image plane
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- 1. The Count of Orgaz wears armor and is shown in the prime of his years. His head falls sideways to the left.
- 2. The Church Father Augustine wears a splendid choir cloak and a miter with brocade embroidery . The figures in the border of the mantle are called the hll. Paul, Johannes and Katharina interpreted.
- 3. The youthful St. Stephen wears a richly decorated dalmatic , the lower border embroidery of which refers to the nature of his martyrdom .
- 4. El Greco's son, who is looking out of the picture, points with the index finger of his left hand at the funeral scene. A white piece of paper protrudes from a sash of his black robe on which the signature Domínikos Theotokópoulos and the year 1578 are painted in Greek letters . The year refers to the year his son was born, who was therefore ten years old at the time the picture was completed. The boy is holding a bundle of torches in his right hand.
- 5th, 6th and 8th religious from various orders were regularly present at the funerals of high-ranking personalities.
- 7th and 11th The humanists Diego de Covarrubias y Leyva and Antonio Covarrubias y Leyva were portrayed several times by El Greco.
- 9. Like his son, El Greco himself looks out of the picture, a motif that is often found in painters of the time.
- 12. and 13. The embroidered border of the priest's smoke cloak shows, as far as recognizable, symbols of transience and the resurrection of the flesh. The execution of the robes of the clergy are examples of the extraordinary art of El Greco.
Intermediate level
The lower and upper levels are separated from each other by partly abstract white fabric-like clouds, which are interspersed with the - partly shadowy - heads of putti - the only narrow passage almost has the character of a birth canal.
Upper image plane
- 1. Christ, hovering over everything, extends his right hand imperiously in the direction of Peter - perhaps with the instruction to open the gates of heaven.
- 2. The blue cloak and the red undergarment of the Virgin Mary impress with their silky shades of color.
- 3. As a contrast, the half-naked John the Baptist sits opposite her with his fur apron.
- 4. Peter appears as the right hand of God isolated from the other saints.
- 5. and 7. The apostles Paul and Thomas are closer to God than the Old Testament prophets . Thomas holds a in his left hand square - he is the patron saint of construction and carpenters and also the patron saint of the Church of Santo Tomé.
- 6. Between the last two figures is the Spanish King Philip II (1527–1598), who was still alive at the time the picture was completed.
- 11. An angel shows the soul of the deceased the way to heaven.
- 12. and 13. The two figures of St. Mary Magdalene and Lazarus. Below the two a lecture cross in the hand of a deacon protrudes from the earthly into the heavenly world.
meaning
For the population of Toledo the picture was of great importance in the years after its completion, as many contemporaries could be seen here, and so there was a real rush of visitors, which however subsided after a while. Afterwards, the painting led a shadowy existence for centuries in a chapel in the parish church of Santo Tomé.
The lower part of the painting is considered to be one of the first group portraits in European painting - around 50 years before Rembrandt . The picture was groundbreaking for the further artistic work of El Greco, who from now on largely renounced natural elements such as landscape, horizon, weather, sun, etc., which had played an important role in the Venetian-influenced painting of his youth. This turning away from the spatial clarity and perspective accuracy of Renaissance painting was to make him a poorly valued painter in the following centuries, who only gained recognition and recognition with Impressionist , Cubist , Expressionist and abstract painting in the late 19th and early 20th centuries Found place among the greatest painters of all time.
literature
- Santiago Alcolea: El Greco. Ediciones Poligrafa, Barcelona 2007, ISBN 978-84-343-0631-8 .
- Michael Scholz-Hansel: El Greco. Domenikos Theotokopoulos 1541-1614. Bags Basic Art Series. Taschen, Cologne 2012, ISBN 978-3-8228-3170-0 .
- Beat Wismer, Michael Scholz-Hänsel (Ed.): El Greco and the modern. Exhibition catalog. Düsseldorf 2012, ISBN 978-3-7757-3326-7 .
