El Greco - Portrait of his Son Jorge Manuel

 

At the Museo de las Bellas Artes, Seville

Domenico Theotocopoulos, (El Greco), Retrato de su Hijo Jorge Manuel, 1600

This painting by El Greco is of his son, Jorge Manuel Theotocopoulos. In this portrait, the son is shown wearing black clothes and a white ruff, in front of a dark background. He holds brushes and a palette in his hands. The artist has darkened the background, leaving only the young man visible, and even his clothing merges with the background. Strong light is directed on his face, as well as the white elements of his clothing, around the neck and wrist.

The painting displays all the key characteristics of El Greco's work:

• Elongated figures and distorted proportions, particularly in the human figures which convey spiritual intensity and emotional drama rather than naturalistic representation.
• His palette often features brilliant clashing colours and mystical lighting that heighten the emotional and spiritual impact of the scenes, contributing to a sense of otherworldliness and emphasizing the transcendental nature of his subjects.
• A fusion of tranditions, merging Byzantine  iconography from his Cretan training with Italian Mannerist techniques learned in Venice and Rome, including influences from Titian and Tintoretto. In Spain he absorbed the religious and mystical atmosphere of Toledo, which further shaped his unique visual language.
• Finally, his compositions often feature dynamic, swirling arrangements and a sense of movement that guides the viewer's eye toward spiritual or emotional focal points. This approach was initially puzzling to contemporaries but was later recognised as a precursor to Expressionism and Cubism.

looking closer

Museo de las Bellas Artes - the exhibits

Museo de las Bellas Artes, Seville.

This is a selection of the paintings in the permanent collection of this museum which is considered one of the finest of Spain. There will also be four posts on individual artists.

Most of the art in the museum's collection is religious. We found it a bit too much. But there is an explanation for this. 

The conquest of Seville by Ferdinand III the Saint in 1248 gave rise to the gradual transformation of the Muslim city. While Islamic architectural features and artistic techniques continued to exist, the new local culture began to incorporate Christian art. This took the form of mainly religious figurative representations on paintings and sculptures, although it also extended to wall paintings and illuminated manuscripts.

The arrival of artists from the north sowed the seeds for a local school of painting that grew ever stronger as the 15th century progressed, with both Flemish and Italian aesthetics permeating the art of the Iberian Peninsula. The presence in Seville of the Castilian monarchs' court fostered the city's cultural and artistic development. Some of the most important texts of the reign of Alfonso X were composed in Seville. This of course, also explains the large number of churches in the city.

Pedro Nunez de Villavicencio, El Vendedor de Bebidas, 1694

Francisco Polanco,  Santiago el Menor, 1640

Francisco Polanco, Santiago el Mayor, 1640

Mattia Preti, Cristo Resucitado en el Genaculo, 1675

Jan Brueghel, the Younger, El Paraiso Terrenal, 1620

Jan Brueghel the Elder made around 100 paintings of paradise-like landscapes, some with and others without a religious theme. Brueghel the Younger also made a series of paintings on this theme, sometimes borrowing elements from his father.

The museum has two paintings by the Younger on this theme.

Jan Brueghel the Younger, El Paraiso Terrenal, 1620

looking closer

Bartolome Bermejo, San Juan Bautista, 1490

Francisco Pacheco,  San Pedro Nolasco embarca para redimir cautivos, 1605

Francisco Pacheco, Retrato de dama y caballero orantes, 1623

Francisco Pacheco, Retrato de dama y caballero orantes, 1623

Alonso Cano, Las Animas del Purgatorio, 1626

Juan de Valdes Leal, Finis Gloriae Mundi, 1671-72, (oil on canvas)

A weak light offers a glimpse of the interior of a funerary crypt where mortal remains repose in the death chamber. In the foreground, the raw sight of two decomposing corpses - a bishop and a knight reveal the fragility of life and implacable effects of death.

In the Field above, Christ's wounded hand weighs good deeds and vices practised in life. The vices are symbolised in the left saucer of the balance by different animals, while on the right the good deeds are represented by instruments of penitence and fasting, prayer books and a rosary, crowned by the love of Christ: a heart with the anagram JHS. The inscriptions NI MAS (No More) and NI MENOS (No Less) are a solemn warning that virtue and love must prevail over vices in a person's life.

Juan de Valdes Leal, In the Blink of an Eye, 1671-72, (oil on canvas)

This work is a reminder that death comes inevitably to everyone, in the blink of an eye, stripping away the riches and ephemeral pleasures accumulated in this world. The reflection is an invitation to prepare one's soul for eternal life. 

Death is depicted as a skeleton whose piercing gaze interrogates the viewer. Poised to fullfil his mission, the skeleton holds a coffin, shroud and scythe. In a theatrical gesture he extinguishes the flame of life while standing on a globe, an illusion to his victory over earthly life. At this feet, like a vanitas, a collection of valuable objects symbolises the fleeting nature of life and the irrelevance of worldly triumphs - power (whether earthly or spiritual), wealth, wisdom and accolades - in the face of eternity.

The art trail

One of the first things we do when we get back to Athens is go to Kolonaki and look at some of the  private galleries.  Not that much to look at this time, as everything closes down in August, and some of the galleries had already closed in late July.

The bus dropped us off at Syntagma Square, We walked past the Houses of Parliament, in front of which the shrine for the victims of the Tempi rail disaster has been .set up

First stop, the shop of the Gikas-Hatzikyriakos wing of the Benaki Museum

This platter on the window -  I could not tell who the artist is

bowl by Yannis Zois

print of the face of a young boy in the Fayoun style by Yannis Moralis

Fani Skoulikidi-Boukovala

Iosifina Kosma

Zoumboulakis Gallery:   Paintings by Knesse Douglas - Dreaming was not Enough

Vessels of Fruit, 2026, (oil, acrylic on canvas)

Untitled, 2026, (acrylic and oil on canvas)

A Vessel to Carry the Ocean, 2026. (oil and acrylic on canvas)

Athens Gallery of Art: Various artists

Stathis-Alexandros Zoulias, To the Castle, 2021

Vanessa Anastasopoulou,  Shardroot, 2025

Kez, Nyra, 2025

Oh dear! I did not record who this is by and I really like it.

Kalfayan Galleries, Konstantinos Mouchtaridis, The Earliest Winds

Vardaris, 2026

Lyvas, 2026

Zephyros, 2026

Windward, 2026

We then went to Philippou, our favourite taverna in Kolonaki, to have lunch

We sat on the terrace

but, as we sat by the window, we had a good view of the inside.

Vincent Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers, Part 2

To express the love of two lovers through a marriage of two complementary colours, their mixture and their contrast, the mysterious vibrations of adjacent tones'. To Theo, 1888

Vincent Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers, Part 1, at the National Gallery, London.

I just realised that I did not post the second part of this exhibition, so I am doing that now. If you want to see the first post please go here   . As usual, I am repeating the introduction from the first part, if you don't want to see it, skip to the first painting.

This exhibition consists of works that Van Gogh created in the course of two years whilst he lived in Arles and Saint-Remy-de Provence. It was a very productive period of his life where he created some extraordinary and innovative work. Some of these works are among his most famous and beloved creations whilst others are less familiar. What emerges from looking at these works is an intellectual artist of lucid intention, deliberation and great ambition.

Van Gogh varied his approach to style and use of colour to explore wide-ranging emotional and poetic possibilities, often with a literary or artistic source in mind. In aiming to convey meaning rather than accurately record nature, Van Gogh took a free hand in adjusting or recomposing what he observed to achieve his desired effects.

The Trinquetaille Bridge, 1888

The Courtyard of the Hospital at Arles, 1889

View of Arles, 1889

The Large Plane Trees (Road Menders at Saint-Remy), 1889

The Poet (3)

Sunflowers, 1888

Sunflowers, 1888

Oleanders, 1888

Still Life with Coffee Pot, 1888

The Arlesienne, 1890

The Arlesienne, 1890

Landscape with Ploughman, 1889

Landscape at Saint-Remy (Enclosed Field with Peasant), 1889

Landscape from Saint-Remy (Wheatfield behind Staint-Paul Hospital), 1889

 

A Wheatfield with Cypresses, 1889

Long Grass with Butterflies, 1890

Olive Grove with Two Olive Pickers, 1889

Olive Trees, Saint-Remy, 1889

Olive Trees, 1889

The Olive Trees, 1889

Mountains at Saint-Remy, 1889

More of Van Gogh's work in this blog: 

Van Gogh in the Van Gogh Museum  in 2014

Van Gogh at the Van Gogh Museum - 2  in 2014, in Amsterdam

Van Gogh - after Millet in 2014, in Amsterdam

Van Gogh and Britain in 2019 at Tate Britain

Kiefer/Van Gogh  in 2015 at the RA

Kiefer/Van Gogh - the drawings  in 2025 at the RA