Horner's Corner

Tag: orgasz

El Greco: The Burial of Count Orgasz

by on Mar.02, 2010, under art

el_greco_orgasz

An amazing picture. I think it may be El Greco’s best, displaying the mannerist style in the service of a visionary, metaphysical depiction of the meaning of death in Christian theology.

The Count had been a notably devout christian in the late medieval period. He appears in this painting as a 16th century nobleman; he is being held tenderly by  a father of the church (notice the way he is being held: almost like a child).

When one looks above, the painting itself seems transformed -glowing with an intense, ecstatic light, with all the forms flowing. We see St. John interceding on behalf of the deceased.. and there is a figure up in heaven there looking like King Philip  II of Spain himself, which is odd if it is him, as he was alive when this was painted. Since Orgasz’s (anachronistic) armour is like that of the King’s, as shown in a contemporary portrait, perhaps he was the true subject of the painting we see here.

Finally (not finally really, as there is so much else to see) -see the way Orgasz’s soul, here seen as a child, is moving up a kind of birth canal to heaven. For the vision here is truly of death as the start of the new life

el_greco_orgasz_countphilip-sm2

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