El Greco paints the Grand Inquisitor
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El Greco paints the Grand Inquisitor is a novella by Stefan Andres from 1936. It addresses the relationship between spirit and power and is now the best-known work by the author, who died in 1970.
content
The fictional text refers to an oil painting created by El Greco around 1600 in Toledo , which is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York .
The novel takes place at the time of the Spanish Inquisition . The well-known painter El Greco is called to Seville to paint the Grand Inquisitor Cardinal Fernando Niño de Guevara . But he does not want to spread consternation and holy horror with his painting, but rather paint as God commands him to do through the commandment of truthfulness. He wants to show what the church looks like in those days ("It has become a bloody fire, Your Eminence!").
But at the same time El Greco is fascinated by the power in which he recognizes greatness, tragedy and the execution of God's will. When looking at a thunderstorm, El Greco recognizes the greatness and cruelty of nature and transfers this impression to the Inquisition ("Fear is the beginning of wisdom!"). The fear of the Inquisition ultimately inspires him to look the terrible in the face. So he paints the picture as an emotional interplay, between fear and collected courage.
Shortly afterwards, however, the cardinal falls ill and El Greco is supposed to call his friend, the famous doctor Cazalla, whose brother had already fallen victim to the Inquisition. Cazalla saves the life of the terminally ill Grand Inquisitor and gives him the opportunity to continue murdering.
interpretation
In his novella, Stefan Andres tells the confrontation between two individualistic opponents of the Inquisition - El Greco and the doctor Cazalla - with its chief executor, the Grand Inquisitor Nino de Guevara. Both criticize the prevailing brutality and the climate of fear. This creates parallels to the reality of the Third Reich.
Grand Inquisitor Cardinal Nino de Guevara embodies evil personified. He fully exploits his ecclesiastically legitimized power and is thus above the political system (state). Even the king is afraid of him. The Grand Inquisitor signs a death warrant on his deathbed.
El Greco paints him in his tragic greatness, as a person who fanatically sacrifices himself to an idea: “He is a saint for the sake of his sadness, a sad saint, a holy executioner!” Cazalla and El Greco make no peace with power, them what remains is the insight into their injustice and cruelty. However, both feel so strongly committed to their professional ethics and their own non-violence that resistance is impossible in the situation described.
Andres rejects the use of violence by the state. But because it becomes a 'natural event' for him, he notes his own helplessness. The toleration of this book by the National Socialists can only be explained by the fact that Andres criticizes a Spanish inquisition that has long been one of the declared enemies of the ethnic-national circles.
Works
- Stefan Andres: El Greco paints the Grand Inquisitor. Narrative. With an afterword by Wilhelm Große. Reclam, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-15-008957-3 ( Reclam's Universal Library 8957).
- Stefan Andres: We are utopia. El Greco paints the Grand Inquisitor. Two novels. With an afterword by Christian Andres, Michael Braun and Georg Guntermann. Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-423-13460-7 ( dtv 13460).
Audio book
- Stefan Andres: El Greco paints the Grand Inquisitor. Reading by Matthias Haase. Director: Torsten Feuerstein. Running time approx. 84 minutes. Freiburg 2003. ISBN 3-89964-005-5