The opening of the fifth seal

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The opening of the fifth seal (El Greco)
The opening of the fifth seal
El Greco , between 1608 and 1614
Oil on canvas
224.8 x 199.4 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art

The opening of the fifth seal (also: The vision of St. John and the fifth seal of the Apocalypse , until the beginning of the 20th century: Amor divino y amor profano , or divine and earthly love) is a painting by El Greco , which was made between 1608 and 1614. The painter executed the 224.8 centimeter high and 199.4 centimeter wide painting in oil on canvas . The subject was not clarified for a long time, in art history it is now known as a representation of the vision of the Evangelist John . The picture was received by some important artists in the early 20th century . The opening of the fifth seal is now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City .

Image description

In The Opening of the Fifth Seal, El Greco processed the passage from the Bible from the Revelation of John , chapter 6, verses 9 to 11: “When the Lamb opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of all who had been slaughtered for the Word Of God and because of the testimony they had given. They shouted in a loud voice: How much longer do you hesitate, Lord, you holy and true one, to keep judgment and to avenge our blood on the inhabitants of the earth? A white robe was given to each of them; and they were told that they should wait a short time until the full number was reached through the death of their fellow servants and brothers who would still have to die like you. ”On the left edge of the picture El Greco positioned the evangelist John , who had his arms and his gaze directed to heaven. His vision is depicted in the background. The figures form two groups - two men and two women on the left, three men on the right - which are identified by different colored cloths. The man on the far right reaches for a white cloth, which is passed from one of the two cherubim . In terms of the function of these cloths, it is not clear whether they are stripped off or used for covering. With the connection of the strong gestures with the wrinkled fabric, El Greco recalls the Ignudi in Michelangelo's frescoes in the Sistine Chapel . The upper part of the picture has been lost. In woodcuts by Matthias Gerung and Albrecht Dürer , who deal with this topic, an altar can be seen, which El Greco may also have shown in the upper half of the picture with the Lamb of God .

background

The opening of the fifth seal remained incomplete due to the artist's death. Unlike the other two altar paintings in the church, his son Jorge Emanuel did not complete it. During a restoration that was carried out in the Museo del Prado in 1880 , the painting was also greatly reduced in size. The restorer cut it 175 centimeters at the top and removed 20 centimeters from the left edge. With John's gestures in particular, El Greco reverted to an attitude that he had already developed in Italy and that he used again and again when he wanted to achieve the highest level of spiritual expression. The subject of the picture was not clearly recognized for a long time. So there were interpretations that it was a prophecy of the Last Judgment or the resurrection of the elect. Ignacio Zuloaga interpreted the picture as the representation of heavenly and earthly love. The description of the content as the opening of the fifth seal from the vision of John was carried out in 1908 by Manuel Bartolomé Cossío and has established itself in the history of art. With the theme of a vision , El Greco prepared an important theme for Spanish baroque painting .

Provenance

The painting was commissioned by Pedro Salazar de Mendoza , who admired El Greco and himself owned six works by the painter. It was for one of the three altars of the San Juan Bautista Hospital (Hospital Tavera), which is outside of Old Toledo . The other two altars showed the Annunciation and the Baptism. The history of the painting is then unclear for a long time. It appeared in the collection of J. Nuñez del Prado and then passed to Antonio Cánovas del Castillo , the Spanish Prime Minister. After it acquired Rafael Vázquez de la Plaza for its collection in Córdoba , it remained in the until 1,905th He sold the picture for 1000 Pesetas to the artist Ignacio Zuloaga , who first brought it to Paris and then transferred it to Zumaya . There it remained in his possession until 1945 and then passed to the Museo Zuloaga . The museum sold it to the Newhouse Galleries in New York City in 1956 , from where The Opening of the Fifth Seal ended up in the Metropolitan Museum of Art .

reception

Robert Delaunay , La Ville de Paris , 1910–1912, Center Pompidou in Paris .

The painting The Opening of the Fifth Seal was received artistically several times at the beginning of the 20th century . Ignacio Zuloaga acquired The Opening of the Fifth Seal in 1905 , which he described as “the harbinger of modernity” and used it as a background in his painting Mis amigos , in which he portrayed some of the most important writers of his time. He also used elements from this painting in several other pictures. In the Pink Period, Pablo Picasso took up motifs from The Opening of the Fifth Seal in his painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, which was perceived as a scandal . In his painting La Ville de Paris , Robert Delaunay referred to The Opening of the Fifth Seal with the group of figures on the right . A drawing by Jackson Pollock is also based on the painting.

literature

  • José Álvarez Lopera (ed.), El Greco. Identity and Transformation. Crete - Italy - Spain , Thames and Hudson, London 1999, ISBN 88-8118-474-5 .
  • Michael Scholz-Hänsel, El Greco 1541–1614 , Taschen, Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-8228-3170-0 .
  • Wilfried Seipel (Ed.), El Greco , Skira, Vienna 2001, ISBN 3-85497-022-6 .
  • Beat Wismer, Michael Scholz-Hänsel (eds.), El Greco und die Moderne , Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern 2012, ISBN 978-3-7757-3326-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ José Álvarez Lopera: El Greco: La Obra Esencial . Silex Ediciones, 1993, ISBN 8477370478 , p. 252.
  2. ↑ Text of the NRSV on bibleserver.com.
  3. ^ Wismer, Scholz-Hansel, p. 142.
  4. ↑ a b Information on the painting on metmuseum.org.
  5. ↑ a b Wismer, Scholz-Hansel, p. 143.
  6. ↑ Seipel, p. 108.
  7. ↑ Wismer, Scholz-Hansel, p. 140.
  8. ↑ Scholz-Hansel, p. 90.