243 Spanish Painting - Research Paper Tuesday, May 5 Professor Jessica Winston

Picassos Spanish Heritage: How El Greco is seen in cubism and in Picassos works
Glfem Demiray

Pablo Picasso, Portrait of a Painter, after El Greco, 1950. Oil on plywood, 39.5 x 32 in (100.5 x 81 cm); Collection Angela Rosengart, Lucerne.

Marquand professor of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University Frank Jewett Mather wrote in 1916 in an essay on El Greco, After three centuries of neglect, varied only by dispraise, the Cretan wanderer Domenicos Theotocopulos has been reborn into fame. Artists particularly make a cult of him Criticism deals with him in the most serious way.1 British critic Roger Eliot Fry noted similarly in 1920 that El Greco was of capital importance for the artists of the day.2 Pablo Picasso was one of those artists who were inuenced by El Greco throughout late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It has also been suggested that Picassos Les Demoiselles DAvignon, which marked the beginning of Cubism,3 is a product of El Grecos inuence on Picasso art. This essay discusses how Picasso was inspired by the Spanish Old Master and in which ways El Grecos art is seen on Les Demoiselles DAvignon. El Greco4 was born into a post-Byzantine cultural heritage in the island of Crete, which was a part of the Venetian Empire at the time. He was trained as an icon painter, adhering to a school of traditional post-Byzantine painting that was permeated with Venetian inuences.5 Reecting the traditions in Byzantine art, El Grecos rst paintings, like Death of the Virgin (Fig. 1), represented depth with vertical arrangement of gures, used unnatural colors, and thus and made no attempt to imitate reality. His artistic style depicted traces of non-naturalistic and non-illusionist Byzantine art throughout his career.6 Described as a restless spirit by Jonathan Brown7, El Greco left his homeland Crete and wandered around ourishing cultural centers in Southern Europe before settling down in Toledo c. 1577.8 He improved his art, thoroughly studying Venetian masters Titian and Tintoretto in Venice9, where he was on a quest for fame the caliber of his artistic genius deserved; he transformed his style even further in Rome, exercising gure drawing in the school of Michelangelo.10 After several years spent in Venice and Rome, El Grecos canvases showed remarkable improvements in composition, depth, and rendering of gures. Compared to the version painted in the artists early Venetian years (Fig. 2), the Roman version of The Purication of the Temple (Fig. 3)
Figure 1. El Greco, Death of the Virgin, before 1567. Tempera and gold on panel, 24 x 18 in (61 46 cm); Panel Holy Cathedral of the Dormition of the Virgin, Hermoupolis.

Figure 2. El Greco, Purication of the Temple, before 1570. Oil on panel, 25.75 x 32.75 in (65 x 83 cm); National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.

Figure 3. El Greco, Purication of the Temple, c.1570. Oil on canvas, 46 x 59 in (117 x 150 cm); The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis.

depicts the dramatic changes in his style, regarding the modeling of the gures and the relationship of gures to the architectural space.11 Natural forms were gradually reduced to an abstract style towards the end of El Grecos career, reiterating the traditional icon painting the artist practiced in his early years in Crete. As his gures became less and less correctly modeled, thinner, taller, and disproportioned, the bond with the corporeal world in his late paintings was broken by such peculiar angularities and sweeping patches of color and brushstrokes, as can be seen in his Laocon (Fig. 4). The Opening of the Fifth Seal (Fig. 5) is another one of El Grecos late works that renders a visionary feeling. Commissioned by the Hospital of Saint John the Baptist, The Opening of the Fifth Seal depicts the Verses 9, 10, and 11 from the Sixth Chapter of the Book of Revelation,14 where Saint John narrates his witnessing of the opening of the fth of the seven seals, whose opening alarms the apocalypse.15 According to Snchez, this is the most unusual theme in Christian iconography for an artist to depict.16 Missing its upper part, the large painting is unnished and damaged.17 An exaggeratedly elongated gure of Saint John lls the left side of the composition with his arms strained upwards, gazing up at the sky in awe. There are ame-like non-individualized nude gures, pale representations of souls, lined up on a horizontal wave in an indeterminate setting. The six gures in the middle appear to be in a perplexed state of mind,

Figure 4. El Greco, Laocon, c. 1610-14. Oil on canvas, 54.125 x 68 in (137.5 x 172.5 cm); National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.

Figure 5. El Greco, The Opening of the Fifth Seal, 1608-14. Oil on canvas, 82.5 x 76 in (222 x 193 cm); The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

surrounding themselves with yellow and green draperies given by the putti that oat above the gures, in what appears to be a turbulently agitated sky. A seventh gure on the right seems to be gliding upwards to reach for a white robe. Lacking balance and clarity in design, the composition dees the traditional structural rules of the Classic and Baroque schools. The elongated bodies of the gures employ verticality, while the draperies and illuminated patches of clouds form wavy horizontal lines in the composition; yet, these lines do not build up a linear structure in the painting. The large gure of Saint John is very close to the foreground, almost presenting the scene on the stage to the spectator. The treatment of depth is quite unaccustomed, as the distance between the slender souls and Saint John appears to be big due to the difference in the scale of their sizes; yet the red drapery between the gures is too short to account for that difference. The yellow and green draperies behind the nude gures enhance the atness of the canvas and the shallowness. El Grecos approach to light and color on the surface reveals the painters Venetian training, enhancing the tumultuous excitement in every inch of the dramatic scene. A light source, possibly having existed in the lost upper part of the painting though not apparent in the picture, illuminates Saint John, the four nude gures on the left and the red robe, while the two kneeling nudes on the right are more in shadow. The light shed on Saint John punctuates the dramatic expression on the saints face, as well as suggesting tension through the interplay of light and dark on the intricate folds of the Saints blue robe. The patches of light that break through the gloomy sky and the chiaroscuro on different textures, add to the sense of agitated motion in the painting, carrying the eye constantly from one point to the next. Bold colors like red, green, blue and yellow enhance the tension by jarringly standing out against both the pale nudes and the maroon-brown background. Despite having theatrical and dynamic effect on the large gure, the intensity of light enhances the sensuousness of the unnaturally elongated nude gures that appear almost boneless. Sensual treatment of
Figure 6. Detail of The Opening of the Fifth Seal (Fig. 5).

their bodies create a certain air of lightness and alleviation of the gures, adding to the visionary sense in the painting. The gures seem to be in a restless constant motion upwards, almost like ephemeral ames. Not only the setting is unidentiable, there seems to be neither an atmosphere surrounding the nude gures, nor a rm ground they are attached to. The eye never ceases to move around the canvas and focus on a certain part; it is constantly carried upwards. The theatrical feeling of the scene, ame-like gures, and the dynamic interplay of contrasting light and colors conveyed by El Grecos free brushstrokes construct a highly expressive scene that shakes the viewer even at rst glance. With all its expressive qualities, the Opening of the Fifth Seal is the painting through which El Greco is seen most himself, according to Mather.18 [El Greco] didnt know how to paint, Francisco Pacheco said, reecting on the artists visionary late works.19 Defying all the accepted beliefs and painting techniques with his visual language and arrogant personality, El Greco was completely unlike any other painter of his time; his imperfect command of the Spanish language only marginalized him more in both the realm of art and Toledan society.19 Holding onto his artistic freedom rmly, he ceased to conne to the subjects and techniques requested by patrons and revolted against the Tasacin system. The independent artist was considered an artist of new Christian inspiration, 21 as his Christ gures were free from dramatic effusions of blood, while artists like Ribera, Gregorie Fernndez, Juan Montans aptly exaggerated religious expression responding to the Spanish concern with dogma. His rst masterpiece Disrobing of Christ (1577-79) was accused of indecency and disrespect by the Cathedral of Toledo, and as a result was rejected.22 His Martyrdom of St. Maurice and the Theban Legion (Fig. 8) was rejected almost at once by Philip II as well, to be replaced by a painting by Romulo Cincinnato (Fig. 9) that responded directly what the commissioners were looking for within the connes of Counter-Reformation thought.23 Moftt argued that Martyrdom of St. Maurice and the Theban Legion appeals to the twentieth century taste because of its expressive brushwork, its colour scheme, its nervous agitation and self-consciousness.24
Figure 9. Romulo Cincinnato, Martyrdom of St. Maurice and the Theban Legion, 1582-3. Oil on canvas, 212.5 x 113 in (540 x 288 cm); El Escorial, Madrid. Figure 8. El Greco, Martyrdom of St. Maurice and the Theban Legion, 1580-82. Oil on canvas, 176 x 118.5 in (448 x 301 cm); El Escorial, Madrid. Figure 7. Detail of The Opening of the Fifth Seal (Fig. 5).

According to Moftt, Spanish artists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were not capable of understanding El Grecos unique modern style that fused a bold Venetian palette into Michelangeloesque sculptural anatomy.25 Unfortunately, El Greco and the innovative extent of his art had to wait until modernity to be fully comprehended and appreciated. His name was unheard of outside of Spain until the revival of Spanish art in France during the rst half of the nineteenth century.26 Even after then El Greco ceased to be popular; Louis Philippes Muse espagnol displayed numerous works by Murillo and Velzquez in 1838, while there were only eight paintings by El Greco being exhibited, and the French public was puzzled by those works.27 French artist douard Manet was not fond of El Greco and he described El Greco as bizarre, although he was extremely enthusiastic about works of Spanish old masters.28 During the second half of the nineteenth century, the element of light and radiance in his paintings appealed to the impressionists; afterwards, El Grecos marginalized, somewhat lonely state in the society, as well as the eccentricity in his style, was commended by symbolists.29 El Grecos rising admiration at the time can also be partially attributed to the aesthetic philosophy of German philosopher Immanuel Kant, which was followed by the artists of the late nineteenth century.30 According to Kants philosophy, an artist is a unique creator who has his own domain and is not bounded by rules or other external powers.31 El Greco t Kants denition of an artist perfectly with his innovative approach to art, along with his independence and courageousness towards authorities. Even though appreciation for El Grecos painting began to intensify, he was still considered as an eccentric old master by most authorities. Picassos Argentinean friend from his Academy years Francisco Bernareggi y Gonzlez Caldern dictated to a friend in 1946, Because Picasso and I copied El Greco in the Prado, people were scandalized and called us Modernists... That was in 1897, when El Greco was considered a menace.32 Complementing the reaction El Greco admirers received at the time, Mather indicated that it was not art historians or critiques who brought

El Greco to fame; it was artists.33 A key name in promoting El Grecos popularity towards the twentieth century was the Spanish painter Ignacio Zuloaga who had a special interest for El Greco.34 The painter was commercially successful, and thus was able to acquire a famed collection of paintings many of which were El Grecos.35 Zuloaga attempted to revitalize the interest in the Spanish heritage, which had started fading with the rise of Impressionism, by depicting intense religious themes and local Spanish motifs.36 Zuloagas art represented that of the Generation of 1898, which went on a quest to dene a Spanish character and analyze native traditions after the Spanish-American war. The artists who took the leading roles in pursuing radical movements in art from modernity onwards, like Pablo Picasso, Juan Gris, Salvador Dal, and Joan Mro, were all schooled within this nationalism.37 Picassos upbringing as an artist coincided with the aforementioned Generation-of-1898-inspired Spanish nationalist movement. Born in 1881, Picasso was exposed to drawing and painting from when he was very little, as his father Jos Ruiz Blasco was a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts.38 Picasso enrolled in the top art school in Spain, the Academia Real de San Fernando in Madrid, but he frequently skipped classes because he was not content with the academy; he preferred drawing sketches in cafs, on the streets, and frequently in the Prado, as Caldern mentioned.39 He was very fond of the old masters, particularly El Greco, to the resentment of his father, who regarded El Greco to be a very dangerous inuence.40

Figure 10. Pablo Picasso, Portrait of Angel de Soto, 1899. Oil on canvas, 24.5 x 19.75 in (62 x 50 cm); Private collection.

Figure 11. Pablo Picasso, Head in the Style of El Greco, 1899. Oil on canvas, 13.5 x 12 in (35 x 31 cm); Museu Picasso, Barcelona.

Figure 12. El Greco, Aged Nobleman, 1587-1600. Oil on canvas, 18 x 17 in (46 x 43 cm); Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid.

Figure 13. Pablo Picasso, Sheet of drawings inscribed Yo El Greco, c.1899. Pen and ink on paper, 12.5 x 8.5 in (31.5 x 22 cm); Museu Picasso, Barcelona.

Picasso returned to Barcelona in 189941 and was involved within the Els Quatre Gats circle, whose leading painters were Casas, Utrillo, and Santiago Rusinol who regarded El Greco as one of the greatest masters; their symbolist style reected the El Greco inuence in their n-desicle melancholy, hollow-eyed and emaciated decadent portraits.42 Portrait of Angel de Soto (Fig. 10) and Head in the Style of El Greco (Fig. 11) which were both painted in 1899, when Picasso was afliated with Els Quatre Gats, reect how much El Greco affected the stylistic development of the young artist. The elongated facial features and a melancholy emanating from the expressive eyes of the sitter, set against a dark background are all reminiscent of El Grecos portraits. In fact, the desire to assimilate El Grecos style is frankly seen in the sheets of drawings by Picasso during those years. Fig. 12 shows a paper on which Picasso scribbled Yo, El Greco43 amongst various drawings and sketches that include El Grecoesque nobleman heads, a man resembling an El Greco, and a self-portrait.44

Picasso went to Paris in 1900 and became close friends with French writer and critics Gustave Coquiot, Max Jacob, and Zuloaga, throughout his so-called Blue Period, where the painter painted monochromatic canvasses that echoe the gloomy blues and grayish whites that were favored by El Greco.45 One of the early examples from Picassos Blue Period, Burial of Casegamas (Evocation)46 (Fig. 13) mirrors the split composition of The Burial of Count Orgaz (Fig. 14), as well as its palette. Paintings Picasso produced in this period all display expressive mannerisms, distortion of the body, and swirling dynamic compositions. Coquiot claimed in 1914 in an essay on Picasso that the artists Blue Period directly originated from El Greco, adding that Picasso was very so absorbed in El Grecos art that he decorated all his walls with photographs of El Grecos works.47

Figure 14. Pablo Picasso, Burial of Casagemas (Evocation), 1901. Oil on panel, 48.5 x 32.5 in (123 x 83 cm); Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago.

Figure 15. El Greco, Burial of Count Orgaz, 1586-88. Oil on canvas, 189 x 142 in (480 x 360 cm); Church of Santo Tom, Toledo.

El Grecos inuence was still seen in Picassos Circus Period48 when Picassos art shifted its gloomy mood to a much livelier one, as Picasso drew his subject matter from Spanish imagery. The composition of The Blind Flower Merchant (Fig. 15) is very similar to that of Saint Joseph and the Christ Child (Fig. 16)49; although the subject matter of The Blind Flower Merchant has nothing to do with the religious theme in El Grecos painting, the poses of the gures and the depiction of space in both paintings seem parallel. While Picasso was absorbed by motifs from his Spanish heritage, the artist and literary circles were quite perplexed and directionless, as the Impressionist and Symbolist phases of modernism were coming to an end.50 Eventually, as artists withdrew from naturalistic representation and started looking inward to an intangible world of emotions and psychological states, expressionism became the prominent artistic movement.51 El Greco gained immense importance with the rise of Expressionism, that was marked by the individuality of the artworks, depending on the artists vision, and required vitality, violence, and impact, according to Gray.52 The violent innovations of the Fauvists asserted in the 1905 autumn salon that natural representation was not important. Art became independent from nature as artists inspired by El Grecos vision, like Henri Matisse and Andr Derain, gained notoriety with the inventiveness of their work.53 In 1907, Manuel B. Cosso compiled the rst El Greco catalogue in Madrid, which sparked the interest in El Greco.54 With passionate coloring, agitated compositions, peculiar angles, and intensity of emotions, El Grecos canvases were interpreted as a desire for self-expression. El Greco became an artist to look at, also because Expressionism favored mannerism that revolted against the naturalism and rationalism of the High Renaissance three hundred years ago and returned to the internal world of emotions and spirituality.55. In the Salon dAutomne exhibition of 1905, Picasso was especially struck by Le Bain Turc by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, along with expressionist works of the Fauvists. Picasso was startled by Matisses Le bonheur de vivre in Salon des Indpendants 1906 and Derains
Figure 17. Pablo Picasso, The Blind Flower Merchant, 1906. Oil on canvas, 86 x 51 in (218.5 x 129.5 cm); The Barnes Foundation, Merion, Pennsylvania. Figure 16. El Greco, Saint Joseph and the Christ Child, c. 1597-1599. Oil on canvas, 114 x 58 in (289 x 147 cm); Toledo Cathedral, Toledo, Spain.

Figure 18. Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, The Turkish Bath, 1862. Canvas on wood panel, 42.5 x 43 in (108 x 110 cm); Muse du Louvre, Paris.

Figure 19. Henri Matisse, Le bonheur de vivre, 1905-06. Oil on canvas, 68.5 x 94 in (174 x 238 cm); The Barnes Foundation, Merion, Pennsylvania.

Figure 20. Pablo Picasso, Two Nudes, 1906. Oil on canvas, 59.5 x 36.5 in (151 x 93 cm); The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Figure 21. Pablo Picasso, The Harem, 1906. Oil on canvas, 60.75 x 43.125 in (154 x 109.5 cm); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio.

Figure 22. Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles DAvignon, 1907. Oil on canvas, 96 x 92 in (244 x 234 cm); The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Bathers at the Salon des Indpendants in 1907.56 With the inspiration he got from Ingres, Matisse and Derain, Picasso painted Two Nudes and The Harem, which are regarded as preliminaries to his ground-breaking work Les Demoiselles DAvignon.57 Les Demoiselles DAvignon is regarded as the rst Cubist painting by the literature. Andr Salmon declared in his Anectodal History of Cubism that the painting is Cubist and it is like no other precedents.58Although completed in 1907, Les Demoiselles DAvignon was not exhibited until 1916,59 partially due to the discouraging comments Picasso received from his friends and other artists. French critic Andr Salmon wrote in his anecdotal history that hideousness of the faces froze and appalled him and the others when Picasso showed the painting privately in his studio in 1907-08.60 Dealer Wilhelm Uhde said in 1938 that dealer Ambroise Vollard and critique Flix Fnon left without understanding a thing.61 Matisse was outraged and Braque was shocked, while Derain said, painting of this sort was an impasse at the end of which lay only suicide; that one ne morning we would nd Picasso hanged behind his large canvas.62 For a century, many art historians acknowledged the extent to which Picasso was affected by Matisse, Derain, and Paul Czanne in undertaking Les Demoiselles DAvignon. Lately, some critics have asserted

that Picasso was directly inuenced by El Greco, like he had been since 1890s, and specically by The Opening of the Fifth Seal. Richardson conrms the link by asserting that at the time Picasso was working on Les Demoiselles DAvignon, El Grecos painting was in Paris at Picassos close friend Zuloagas home.63 Laesse asserted Picasso might have already seen the painting earlier in 1902 on his journey to Madrid from Barcelona to see the El Greco exhibition of that year.64 The incredible formal and stylistic similarities between The Opening of the Fifth Seal and Les Demoiselles DAvignon support the critics claim. Picassos Les Demoiselles DAvignon depicts ve naked prostitutes in a bordello, on a canvas that is very similar to that of El Greco in both its size and its quasi-square shape. A gure whose face is marked by Egyptian features stands on the left of the canvas and is pulling a curtain open, echoing the St John gure from prole with her upstretched arm. The standing gure on the right is also hastily opening a curtain apart. Two standing gures in the middle that look suggestively right at the viewer reminds us El Grecos ame-like souls, especially regarding the weird standing position the second to the left gure is in. The squatting gure in the middle is in an impossible posture as well. Her head, which is radically divided into two, is facing the viewer, while her back is facing the picture plane; it is as if her head is turned around 180 degrees. The can also be interpreted as a fusion of the two kneeling gures, one of which is frontal while the other is dorsal, and who are located at the same spot on El Grecos canvas.65 Picassos unnaturally depicted gures appear weightless in an undened setting, just like El Grecos elongated and distorted gures. Like The Opening of the Fifth Seal, Picassos asymmetric composition has no focus or balance. Numerous diagonal lines formed by the bodies of the gures that interact with each other and produce a perplexing effect. The treatment of space is also very ambiguous, as depth varies tremendously throughout the painting, as each of the elements in the composition, dened by sharp lines, seem to be at a different distance to the viewer. The blotches of white paint and the boldly contrasting tones on the bodies of the gures echoe El Grecos dramatic approach to light and color, as well as adding to the turbulent anxiety in the bold scene.

Figure 23. Les Demoiselles DAvignon (Fig. 22).

Figure 24. The Opening of the Fifth Seal (Fig. 5).

Although El Grecos traces on Les Demoiselles DAvignon can be very clearly observed, numerous other inuences have been suggested, including the aforementioned Matisse, Derrain, and Czanne inuences. Rubin asserts that the composition of Les Demoiselles DAvignon was inuenced by the tightly grouped nudes in Ingres Le Bain Turc, supported by the claim that Picasso was very fond of the Ingres painting.66 Miller suggests the developments in cinematography, geometry, X-rays, and photography, as well as Picassos personal love affairs as possible sources of inspiration for the painting.67 The literature also cites Picassos growing interest in African art in 1906-07 as direct inuences on Les Demoiselles DAvignon, drawing particularly on the depictions of the gures. Picasso was alerted to African art in Spring 1906, thinking that he was behind the contemporary trends, after learning that Matisse and Derain had their own private collections of African art objects.68 Rubin notes that Picasso made changes on the face of the two gures on the right after his visit to the Muse Ethnologie du Trocadro to see an African exhibit.69 However, Picasso fanatically denied any African inuence on his art, after he heard a commentary by Mexican-born artist and propagandist Marius de Zayas, who asserted modernist abstraction was all off-spring of African art.70 Rubin also argues that Picassos grasp of Czanne was not fully developed in 1906-7, adding that the inuence of Czanne on Picassos art is very exaggerated.71 It actually doesnt matter whether the inuence of Czanne on Picasso is exaggerated or not, as Czanne himself was highly inuenced by El Greco.72 The similarity between El Grecos and Czannes paintings is so remarkable that Swiss Critic von Tschudi said to Fry, Do you know why we admire El Grecos handling so much? Because it reminds us of Czanne.73 Picasso himself said, We should look for Spanish inuence on Czanne Observe El Grecos inuence on him.74 The commentaries that highlight the similarities between Cubism and El Greco, also supports the idea that The Opening of the Fifth Seal had an undisputable affect on Les Demoiselles DAvignon. Pointing out

that Picassos art stems from his Spanish nature, Guillaume Apollinaris reected in 1905 that Cubism comes from far away, from the richness of composition and decoration of the Spaniards of the seventeenth century.75 Crastre wrote in his introduction to The Birth of Cubism, I will show that there is Spanish blood in Cubism.76 He argued that Spanish art was precedent to Cubism with its abstract, ascetic, and ritualist tendencies.77 Picasso himself, too, asserted in 1960 that Spanish art is the origin of Cubism, Cubism is Spanish in origin, and it was I who invented Cubism.78 Morris describes the characteristics that underlie Cubist art79 as largeness of conception, deformation of perspective, and the analyzation of the object in its relation to pictorial structure. These are all concepts El Greco was preoccupied with, disregarding the ideals of the ecclesiastical and royal authorities. Other characteristics of Cubist paintings according to Morris are cast-shadows, blurring transitions, and exploration of form, which are again signifying characteristics of El Grecos artistic style. In fact, Picasso admitted in 1960 that El Greco is a Venetian painter but he is Cubist in construction.80 The similarities between the personal and artistic lives of the two painters add a delightful twist to the stylistic comparison. Both painters had their artistic training in their native land and then left home to go to the artistic and intellectual centers of their age; a native of Mlaga, Spain, Picasso reached the height of his fame in Paris, just like El Greco found his artistic niche in Toledo. El Grecos innovative and unique approach was fed by his Byzantine-Venetian heritage throughout his career and he always remained as The Greek; Picasso always drew upon his Spanish heritage and according to Crastre, he always remained truly Spanish.81 Both painters formed a distinctive and eclectic artistic style, building their skills on the acknowledged artists of the past. The critic reactions both painters got are also very similar, as both of them got ridiculed and rejected for quite some time before their art gained acceptance. The painting that intrepidly marked the beginning of a new era of modernity, Les Demoiselles DAvignon, depicts Picassos admiration of

El Greco and his assimilation of the old masters style. The literature points that El Greco was having a revival due to Spanish national movements and Expressionism throughout Picassos early career. Having been engaged with schools and artists that praise El Greco, it was inevitable for Picasso not to revere the old master who he had been following since he was a student. This is reected on the formal language of Les Demoiselles DAvignon. However, it would not be correct neither to argue that Picasso is exactly the same as El Greco, nor Les Demoiselles DAvignon is a replica of The Opening of the Fifth Seal; what made both artists original and innovative was their own interpretation on the artistic inuences they acquired from previous masters.

Notes
1. Mather (1916), p. 57. 2. Fry (1921), p. 213. Frys review entitled The New El Greco at the National Gallery rst appeared in Volume 6 of The Athenaeum, in February 1920. He later on published the essay in 1921 in Vision and Design, a collection of his writings on art and artists. 3. See Cowling (2002), Green (2001) and Richardson (1991). 4. El Grecos real name is Domenikos Theotocopoulos, although he was referred to as El Greco, which means The Greek in Spanish and Italian (Brown, 1991, p. 69). 5. Brown (1982), p. 76. 6. Brown (1991), p. 69. 7. Ibid. 8. See (1991) for El Grecos detailed biography. 9. Brown (1982), p. 78. 10. Ibid., p. 88. 11. Ibid., p. 90. Brown also noted the group of four gures in the lower right corner of the painting as a footnote in which the artist acknowledges his sources of inspiration. The gures are identiable as Titian, Michelangelo, Giulio Clovio, and probably Raphael. 12. Brown (1991), p. 69. 13. Brown (2001), p. 62. 14. Rousseau (1959), p. 249. Rousseau wrote that El Greco was commissioned by the Hospital of Saint John the Baptist to paint for the altars of the hospital chapel, in a detailed contract signed in 1608. It is widely accepted that the painting depicts these verses, although there is not enough evidence, as the contract does not include specic information on paintings. 15. The New Oxford Annotated Bible, Rev. (also Apoc.). The opening of the fth seal is narrated in The Book of Revelation, or Apocalypse. The passage recounts the prayers of martyrs in heaven; 9 When he opened the fth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne; 10 they cried out with a loud voice, O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before thou wilt judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell upon the earth? 11 then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been. 16. Snchez (1982), p. 175. 17. Rousseau (1959), p. 260-62. 18. Mather (1916), p. 71. Mather wrote, In the Vision of Patmos (often misnamed Sacred and Profane Love) we nd him most himself. 19. Quoted from Moftt (1999), p. 118. 20. Brown (1991), p. 70. 21. Bennassar (1979), p. 73-74. Bennassar noted that Ribera, Fernndez, and Montans were exaggerating religious expression more so than Old Masters from other countries. See Brown (1991) and Stoichit, Victor Leronim. 1995. Visionary Experience in the Golden Age of Spanish Art. London : Reaktion Books. on the dogma and concern with religious iconography in El Grecos time. 22. Brown (1991), p. 72. 23. Ibid., p. 74. 24. Moftt (1999), p. 108. 25. Ibid., p. 112. 26. See Lipschutz (1972) and Tinterow (2003). Information on Spanish art and artists were incessantly being introduced to French circles through newspapers, magazines, and exhibitions, in an effort to shed the light on Spanish painting. The Muse Espagnol recently established by Louis Philippe was also a part of the project. 27. Lipschutz (1972). p.130. Lipschutz wrote, Four portraits, one a self-portrait, and four religious paintings confounded French onlookers.

28. Quoted from Wilson-Bareau (2003), p. 231. Wilson-Bareau also noted that the word bizarre had a bad connotation in France at the time when Manet used it. 29. See Cowling (2002), Chapter entitled The Symbolist 1899-1904. 30. Gray (1961), p. 10. In the chapter entitled The Idealist Background of Cubism, Gray wrote that French symbolists and expressionists were inuenced by the philosophies of Hegel and Kant. Even though Kant lived in the eighteenth century, according to Gray, the French intellectual circles followed the German schools lagging a century behind. 31. See Gray (1961). 32. Quoted from Richardson (1991), p. 88. 33. Mather (1996), p. 58. Mather wrote, Unlike other revivals, the Greco cult has not been preached in partibus by the middlemen of art; it has grown among the studios of Paris and London, whence it has spread widely. 34. Moftt (1999), p. 197. 35. See Laesse (1987). 36. Moftt (1999), pg. 197. 37. Ibid. 38. Barr (1966), pg. 14. Barr also noted that Blasco never discouraged his son from pursuing art as a career, even though he was an unsuccessful artist. 39. Cowling (2002), p. 52. 40. Richardson (1991), p. 290. Caldern mentioned that Blasco disapproved of Picassos interest towards El Greco, in the same passage where he talked about copying El Grecos works with Picasso in the Prado. Caldern said that when Picasso wrote to his father about El Greco, and his response was, Youre taking the wrong road. Quoted from Richardson (1991), p. 88. 41. Cowling (2002), p. 60. Picasso was born in Mlaga, but spent most of his childhood and youth in Barcelona; that is why he returns to Barcelona after quitting school. 42. Ibid., p. 62. 43. Yo, El Greco translates from Spanish as I am El Greco. 44. Picasso expressed his admiration for the heads of El Grecos gures in a letter to his friend Joaquim Bas, dated November 3, 1897, by describing them as magnicent heads. Richardson (1991), p. 90. 45. Barr (1966), p. 19. 46. Picasso painted Burial of Casegamas as a memorial to his close friend Carlos Casagemas, who ended his life by committing suicide. See The Symbolist 18991904 in Cowling (2002) for Picassos friendship with Casagemas. 47. Coquiot (1914), p. 147-148. Coquiot wrote referring to Picasso, Il nous reviens aprs un voyage en Espagne, charg de portraits barbares et, la verit, trs curieux. Cela encore ne dure pas; il court toujours aprs une originalit; et comme il sest pris soudainement du Greco, quil a place les photographies des inous tableaux de ce Matre tout autour des murs de sa chamber, il innove la priode bleu. The text can be translated as, He came to us after a visit to Spain, loaded with barbaric, to tell the truth, very strange portraits. It doesnt end with this; he is always looking for originality; he invented the Blue Period as he suddenly fell in love with Greco, so much that he hung photographs of the extraordinary paintings of this Master all around the walls in his room. 48. Barr calls the period in Picassos art between 1904-06 the Circus Period; however, it should be noted that some literature refer to is as the Rose Period. Barr (1966), p. 37. 49. Ibid. 50. See Gray (1961), the chapter entitled The Beginnings of the New Dynamism. Rubin (1994) commented on the n-de-sicle depression of the period as The inherited impressionist symbolist age of modernism was coming to an end and no solution was yet found. 51. Ibid. 52. Ibid., p. 26. Gray stated that Expressionism was an assertion of the autonomy of the artistic vision and the establishment of a free rein for the artist to reconstruct visual appearances according to his own convictions.

53. Galassi (1996), p. 120. 54. Ibid., p. 121. The catalogue was not published until 1908. Galassi also wrote that Cossos catalogue established El Greco as the embodiment of authentic Spanish spirit. 55. See Gray (1961), the chapter entitled The Beginnings of the New Dynamism. 56. See Rubin (1994) for details on the paintings noted. 57. Ibid. Two Nudes is compared to Les Demoiselles DAvignon with its formal qualities and physical features of the nude gures depicted, while The Harem is subject to comparison due to its subject matter. 58. Salmon (2005). Andr Salmons text was translated by Beth S. Gersh-Nei as, Picasso inevitably gave us an appearance of the work that did not conform to the what we learned how to see it. According to Golding (2001), Andr Salmons Anecdotal History of Cubism set the tone and formalistic approach in which the work was to be discussed for some fty years to come. 59. Rubin (1994), p. 18. The painting was displayed for public in an exhibition organized by Salmon, Lart moderne en france, in Salon dAntin, Paris. 60. Quoted from Salmon (2005). 61. Quoted from Miller (2001), p. 94. 62. Ibid. 63. Cossos El Greco catalogue recorded that the painting was in Zuloagas apartment at the time. See Laesse (1987) for more details on the catalogue record and the location of Zuloagas apartment in Paris. 64. Ibid. 65. Laesse (1987) is the rst critique who interpreted that the seated gure in Les Demoiselles DAvignon was identical to the kneeling gures in El Grecos Apocalypse scene. 66. See Rubin (1994). 67. See Miller (2001). 68. Ibid., p. 92. 69. See Rubin (1984) and Rubin (1994). 70. Quoted from Rubin (1984), p. 260. 71. Rubin (1994), p. 95. Rubin wrote, that it is El Grecos example, rather than Czannes, which becomes important at the point at which Picasso begins to paint [Les Demoiselles DAvignon]. 72. Fry (1921), p. 212. According to Fry, Czanne took his great discovery of permeation of every path of the design with a uniform and plastic theme from El Greco. 73. Fry (1921), p. 213. Fry did not note when the conversation took place, but he indicated that von Tschudi said this remark while looking at the Lacon. 74. Quoted from Brown (2001), p. 62. 75. Quoted from Gray (1961), p. 29-30. 76. Crastre (1937?), p. 10. The original text in French reads, Je montrerai cependant quil y a du sang espagnol dans le cubisme. 77. Ibid. Crastre wrote on page 25, il nest pas moins vrai de dire que la peinture espagnole fait prvoir le cubisme: le gnie espagnol tend labstraction and on page 54, asctisme, abstraction, tirualism qui sont, je laid dit, qualities spciquement espagnoles, condamnent la guration. 78. Quoted from Brown (2001), p. 62. 79. See Morris (1935). Morris elaborates on Cubism while asserting that the paintings of Fernand Lger of 1914 circa bear a supercial resemblance to Cubist work. 80. Quoted from Brown (2001). 81. Crastre (1937?), p. 22. Original text in French reads, Picasso est un grand peintre qui ne cesse jamais dtre espagnol. It can be translated as, Picasso is a great painter who never lost his Spanishness.

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