Doña María de Aragón Altarpiece

Altarpiece painted by El Greco
You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Spanish. (June 2018) Click [show] for important translation instructions.
  • View a machine-translated version of the Spanish article.
  • Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia.
  • Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 5,028 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization.
  • Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
  • You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Spanish Wikipedia article at [[:es:Retablo de doña María de Aragón]]; see its history for attribution.
  • You may also add the template {{Translated|es|Retablo de doña María de Aragón}} to the talk page.
  • For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

The Doña María de Aragón Altarpiece was an altarpiece painted between 1596 and 1599 by El Greco for the chapel of the Colegio de la Encarnación (also known as the Colegio de doña María de Aragón) in Madrid. The college was secularised during Goya's lifetime and the altarpiece was dismantled. There has been much speculation over which paintings belonged to the work. The consensus view is that it consisted of six large canvases and a seventh, now lost. Five of those six canvases are now in the Prado and the sixth is in the National Museum of Art of Romania in Bucharest.

History

In 1596 El Greco undertook to make the altarpiece for the church of the college, a seminary of the Augustinian order. The popular name alludes to María de Córdoba y Aragón, the patron who paid for the works, lady of Queen Anne of Austria and daughter of Don Álvaro de Córdoba, senior knight of Philip II.[1] El Greco was commissioned by the Council of Castile, which had taken charge of the works after the death of Doña María. There are documents that attest that it was to be done in three years and the work was valued at just over sixty-three thousand reales, the highest price he got in his life. However, there are no references to the number of paintings that formed it, nor to the structure of the altarpiece, nor to the subject matter. Ceán Bermúdez, two centuries later, said that the paintings dealt with the cycle of the life of Christ.[2]

Composition

Names, dimensions and museums

  • Resurrection 1597-1600 275 x 127 cm Museo del Prado (Madrid)
    Resurrection
    1597-1600
    275 x 127 cm
    Museo del Prado (Madrid)
  • Crucifixion 1597-1600 312 x 169 cm Museo del Prado (Madrid)
    Crucifixion
    1597-1600
    312 x 169 cm
    Museo del Prado (Madrid)
  • Pentecost 1597-1600 275 x 127 cm Museo del Prado (Madrid)
    Pentecost
    1597-1600
    275 x 127 cm
    Museo del Prado (Madrid)
  • Adoration of Shepherds 1597-1600 364 x 137 cm National Museum of Art of Romania (Bucharest)
    Adoration of Shepherds
    1597-1600
    364 x 137 cm
    National Museum of Art of Romania (Bucharest)
  • Annunciation 1597-1600 315 x 174 cm Museo del Prado (Madrid)
    Annunciation
    1597-1600
    315 x 174 cm
    Museo del Prado (Madrid)
  • Baptism of Christ 1597-1600 315 x 144 cm Museo del Prado (Madrid)
    Baptism of Christ
    1597-1600
    315 x 144 cm
    Museo del Prado (Madrid)

See also

Bibliography (in Spanish)

  • Pita Andrade, José Manuel (1985). El Greco. Carrogio SA de Ediciones. ISBN 84-7254-514-8.
  • Cossío, Manuel B. (1965). El Greco. Espasa Calpe Argentina, S.A. ISBN 84-7254-514-8.
  • Gudiol, José (1982). El Greco. Ediciones Poligrafa S.A. ISBN 84-343-0031-1.
  • Tazartes, Mauricia (2004). «Las Obras Maestras». El Greco. 2005 Unidad Editorial S.A. ISBN 84-89780-99-4.
  • Buendía, José Rogelio (1988). «El Greco, humanismo y pintura». El Greco. Sarpe. ISBN 84-7700-088-3.
  • Ruiz Gómez, Leticia (2007). El Greco. Museo Nacional del Prado. ISBN 978-84-8480-135-1.

References

  1. ^ Monasterio de Doña María de Aragón, madridhistorico.com
  2. ^ Ruiz Gómez, op. cit., p.75

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Doña María de Aragón reredos.
  • Entry on the Museo del Prado website
  • v
  • t
  • e
El Greco
Paintings
Portraits
Museums
Related
  • v
  • t
  • e
Buildings
Paintings
Spanish
Dutch,
Flemish,
German
Italian
French
Other
Sculptures
Rome
  • [1] On display at El Greco Museum in Toledo
  • [2] On display at Museo de América in Madrid
  • [3] On display at the Spanish Embassy in Paris
  • Category