Historical visit of Greco to Prado (but not home)

Only signed and dated work Del Greco, and possibly the first made in Spain, is the central work of the main altarpiece of the church of the Monastery of Santo Domingo El Antigo de Toledo. In 1577, after ten years absorbing art in Italy, especially in Venice, he arrives in Spain and receives two very important orders from Diego de Castilla, Deán de la Cathedral de Toledo. His son Luis had recommended him, who met him in Rome. On the one hand, ‘El Pugolio’, for the Toledo Cathedral; on the other, three altarpieces (one central and two sides) for Santo Domingo el Old.

In total, nine paintingswhich performs Between 1577 and 1579. Except three of them, which have remained in their place of origin (‘San Juan Bautista’, ‘San Juan Evangelista’ and ‘La Resurreción’), the six others dispersed From 1830. In 1814 the War of Independence ended, in 1819 the Prado was inaugurated, there is a growing international interest in Spanish art, ecclesiastical confiscations begin … «The result could not be more dazzling. Is A visual enjoyment», Says Leticia Ruiz, who highlights the ambition and self -esteem of the painter, who even modified the traditional structure of the altarpiece by another ‘to the Venetian’.

At the exit of four of them he participated very actively as an intermediary andThe Valeriano Salvatierra sculptor. Born in Toledo in 1789, he was the son of the sculptor of the Primada Cathedral of Toledo. In 1830 he acquired ‘La Asunción’ Infante Sebastián Gabriel de Borbóngreat -grandson of Carlos III, very fond of painting and avid collector. Pay 14,000 reais of fleece for him. Salvatierra recommended prudence: «You need a lot of stealth in the treatment to be had with those interested. The more noticeable this matter is, the less ease of achieving it ». To replace the original, a copy (of excellent quality, says Leticia Ruiz) to Luis Ferrant and Carlos Luis Ribera, who charged 8,000 reais.

‘The assumption’ He suffered not a few ups and downs: The Elizabethan government confisca it in 1836, it returns it to the infant in 1859, it takes it to Pau (France) in 1868 … after exposing it In the Prado in 1902two years later he was sold by his heirs in the Parisian gallery of Paul Durand-Ruel, the famous march of the impressionists. They say they paid 100,000 francs for him. Its new owner, Nancy Atwood Sprague, donated the painting in 1906 to Art Institute of Chicago In memory of her husband, Albert. Since then he is one of the masterpieces of his collection. It does not usually lend. He gave in to Grand Palais in Paris for an organized exhibition together with the Chicago Museum in 2019-2020. The Prado then gave to the American Museum three works of Greco. As a counterpart, he now travels to Spain ‘La Asunción’.

After More than 120 years outside our countryreturn, although temporarily, until June 15. Traveled from Chicago to Paris in A special plane For large loads and accompanied by two emails: A Marcos specialist (the frame disassembled) and another in painting. From Paris he set for Madrid in a truck with all the guarantees of air conditioning and security. The Prado arrived last Saturday.

Salvatierra’s elongated hand also intervened in the purchase of ‘La Trinidad’that he himself sold Fernando VII for 15,000 reais. Today is in the Prado collection. And made an intermediary for the infant to acquire two other Greeks of the Toledo monastery, also confiscated by the Elizabethan government: ‘San Benito’ – They never returned it and entered the Prado in 1872– and ‘San Bernardo’. This was sold by the infant’s son, after his death. He went through several owners until in 1943 he was deposited in the National Gallery of Berlin. At the end of World War II it was confiscated as war loot by the USSR. Today it belongs to the Museum Collection Hermitage of St. Petersburg. He has not traveled to Madrid. The curator explains that the work never travels. And not for a veto to Russia due to war in Ukraine, but because they fear possible international claims. Hang a reproduction in the sample.

Two works by Santo Domingo the old end in private collections: ‘The adoration of the shepherds’ It was acquired in 1956 by Emilio Botín-Sanz de Sautuola and LópezEmilio Botín’s father, who was president of Banco Santander. Today, this Greco is in the Botín Foundation Collection. For its part, ‘La Santa Faz’painted by the Cretan in 1584-90, it was dismantled in 1961 and three years later it was sold to a particular Spanish collection.

The eight masterpieces of the young man and already dazzling Greco look in LTo the Prado Central Galleryin a very special assembly: a kind of “deconstruction of the idea of ​​altarpiece.” It has to be disassembled half of it (Salas 25 and 26) and redistributing the works that hung in it usually. Some have gone directly to the warehouses and others, such as those of Veronés, they pass through the restoration workshop for their tuning before the great monograph of the Venetian teacher prepared by the meadow from May 27. The commissioner explains that the state of conservation of the Greeks is great («They seem newly painted»). They have only removed dust and have varnished minimally. The three works from the monastery are exhibited No framewith the ‘ears’ that anchor the altarpiece, almost as they came out of the hands of the Greco. It cost, yes, convince the nuns (“They doubted a lot,” says the curator) for the loan. As a counterpart, the Prado restores ‘the Annunciation’, by Eugenio Cajés, and the paintings have been technically studied.

As an epilogue of the exhibition, which has the sponsorship of the Friends of Prado Foundationat the end of the sample a second ‘adoration of the shepherds’ (h. 1612-14), the last great masterpiece of Greco, acquired by the Prado in 1954. In it, the artist is self-portrait to kneel to the left of the left of the left of the left of the Composition and portrays his son Jorge Manuel on the right side with a yellow shirt. El Greco wanted to be buried in Santo Domingo El Old. And so it was done when he died on April 7, 1614. But four years later his mortal remains were exhumed and taken to the church of San Torcuatodemolished in the nineteenth century. If the Cistercian nuns who inhabit Santo Domingo El Antigua are asked, they say that the Greco is still buried there.

It is possible to compare today in the Prado the only two ‘resurrections’ that the Greco painted, as well as his first and his last ‘adoration of the shepherds’, a few meters from each other. In the rooms attached to the central gallery, another exceptional set of the Greco hangs: The main altarpiece of Doña María de Aragón College. It is already another more mature Greco, denosted and rediscovered by modern painting, which is fascinated by him. This last Greco conceives claustrophobic spaces, enhancing the verticality of the formats, with great expressiveness and an intense color, applied with an extraordinary ease.

It is a pity that the works have not gone, before or after the meadow, to their place of origin, at home: in the altarpieces of Santo Domingo the old Today they only hang, unfortunately, reproductions.

The Greece of Santo Domingo the old hang in LTo the Prado Central Gallery. It has to be evicted works and redistributing them in other rooms and warehouses.

‘Adam and Eva’, by Tiziano. Room 25. It is relocated to room 26 (Veronese area)

‘Adam and Eva’, by Rubens. Room 25. It is relocated to room 26 (Veronese area)

‘The abduction of Helena’, from Tintoretto. Room 25. It moves to the warehouses

‘The Lavatorio’, by Tintoretto. Room 25. It moves to room 26 (Veronés)

‘Judith and Holofernes’, from Tintoretto workshop. Room 25. It moves to the warehouses

‘Burial of Christ ‘, from Tiziano. Room 25. It moves to the warehouses

‘Santa Margarita’, by Tiziano. Room 25. It moves to the warehouses

‘Jesus and the Centurion’, by Veronés. Room 26. It moves to the warehouses

‘Martirio de San Mena’, by Veronés. Room 26. It moves to the warehouses

‘The dispute with the doctors in the temple’, by Veronés. Room 26. It moves to the warehouses

‘Venus and Adonis’, by Veronés. Room 26. It is relocated to room 44 and replaces ‘Allegory of the Birth of the Infante Don Fernando’, of Parrasio, who moves to the stores

‘Stanzione’s sacrifice’. Room 26. It moves to the warehouses

‘Moisés saved from the waters’, from Gentileschi. Room 26. It is relocated in the same room

‘Sagrada Familia with Santa Catalina’, by Cavarozzi. Room 26. It is relocated in the same room

‘Venus, Adonis and Cupid’, by Carracci. Room 26. It is relocated in the same room