EL Greco

Paints

“Christ Healing the Blind Man”

Ca. 1570

The line in this painting goes right down the middle of this oil on canvas 47 x 57 ½ inch painting. It is the walk way in front of the temples. It gives the painting depth. You can see the buildings descending behind Christ and the blind man Bartimaeus like the city just continues behind them and neither Christ nor Bartimaeus are concerned. This effect created the emphases on Christ and Bartimaeus because they are the subject, the main topic, what is going on in spite of the disbelief, hate, jealousy and pull for power, religious and political control trying to stop the holy event. This healing took place in spite of all the darkness in the hearts of men and the busy city.

He choose some lovely colors light blues, tans, browns, pinks, yellows, white, gold, purple, reds, blues dark and light and emerald green. Everyone was quite it style. We have noble men and women in this painting, they are lightest complexion. The woman rushing by with her blank servant who is wearing an emerald green garment like some of the noblemen. I imagine that nobleman, Rabbis, the rich and servants didn’t wear the same colors but, they did El Greco’s world.

He must have been a very fair and unprejudiced man. The blind man, Bartimaeus, was a darker skin tone than Christ and the Rabbis. He was from a lower society and it made me wonder if these indiscretions of darker skin toned servants and beggars wasn’t something seen more in 16^th century Europe as at the time of Christ in Israel. I am sure that everyone in Israel was all the same color, especially Christ and Bartimaeus. Maybe the Romans were of lighter complexion, but they were not in this story. So the skin tones on the different characters played is notable by their office, role the played, society level, their clothes the color of their robes. For instance, Christ is wearing a purple robe. This is a color that was usually only worn by Royalty. In fact before he was crucified, Roman soldiers mocked him and after whipping him till his back was raw like hamburger, they put a purple garment on his bleeding back calling him “look at him Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews.” Nothing good came out of Nazareth. It would be like saying “look Jesus from Watts, King of the Jews.” They were making fun of him and belittling him. So in this painting El Greco was sincere enough to dress his Lord in purple because perhaps he felt that He is the King of Kings so he gave Jesus the credit.

I loved the way he used the light colors to set off the day. It was a beautiful day for a miracle and these light hues of blue and white made that possible. The sky was clear, the clouds were fluffy and white like in a dream. The temples are stonewashed gorgeous. You can see the detail of the carved artwork on the walls. The sidewalks are tiled in checkered pattern giving you an idea how wide and long they are. There is depth, length, width, form, shape, texture, and the creations of space. The only ugliness in the behavior of the men themselves. No one is acknowledging a miracle taking place. But that doesn’t bother Christ or Bartimaeus. They are aware that a miracle is taking place and that they are part of it. That was all that matter to Christ, and that was all that mattered to Bartimaeus. You can see the expression on the blind man’s face as sight is restored to eyes that have never seen. He could care less what is going on around him, Jesus is his first image that he sees and that a blessing all in itself. As the song said, “If I Could Only Imagine by MercyMe”.

There is great balance, rhythm and pattern in this painting. There is balance, because El Greco put Christ and Bartimaeus in the center of the painting with the chaos of angry men around them. The unity of rhythm and the pattern on the people in the crowd around them, the movement of everyone struggling to get to Christ to disrupt the miracle creating texture of chaos, all these things are a unity of art. Principles of design and elements of art at work together creating oil to come alive on canvas.

Emotional expressionism, Illusionism, romanticized, classical, renaissance of a neoclassical period. The context in this piece is religious. The subject is Christ is healing the blind man that God might be glorified and praised. The blind man’s name was Bartimaeus. He had been blind since birth and spent the better part of his day into his adulthood begging at the gates of the city. (Mark 10:46 – 52)

The Rabbis were not having it. They didn’t care that somebody was healed. They were not happy because Moses law was broken. You are not supposed to do anything on the Sabbath it is the day of rest. Christ healed this man on the Sabbath and that made this a crime. Not only that, they didn’t get credit for the healing, losing face with the people, making them look like they didn’t have the power to heal. This needed to be washed away and so did this man. They had to find something wrong with him or the people would follow him and not them. Where there is no power there is no money, and that is a problem. So this went to the highest court and Bartimaeus and his parents were called to testify for or against Christ and the validity of the healing. This was not a matter that was all done in one day, in one painting. The painting is an illusion of the whole event. In reality the whole event took days.

El Greco lived in Spain at the time that he painted the Christ Healing the Blind Man. He in Toledo and there he remained until his death in 1614. He was a true Renaissance man. He was Greek but lived mostly in Spain.

He had a great library with great literature in Greek and Italian as well as Latin and Spanish. He was born in Candia, Crete in 1541 according to his own record. His real name was Domenikos Theotokopoulos. Crete was a Venetian possession at the time so he studied in Venice. He was known for is emotional expressionism which made him an artist way before his time. Expressionism wasn’t heard of until the 20^th century. However, our Greek was certainly expressing entire stories and events in single paintings recording history and religious events in dramatic illusionism. He went to study in Italy sometime around 1560 or after his father’s death 1566. It was actually in Italy they started calling him “Il Greco meaning, the Greek.” This was because his name was difficult to pronounce. He had the same issue in Spain, thus resulting in his famous name and signature, “El Greco.”

He went to Rome from 1570 – 1572 and for a short time back to his home in Venice. He then left Venice, it is believed because of the plague and went back to Spain where he proceeded to paint many religious paintings that would carry his great name through the ages like, “The Apparition of the Virgin to St Lawrence 1578-80, St. Francis Receiving the Stigmata 1570 – 72, St John the Evangelist 1577-79. El Greco loved St John he did him several times. He painted him in his youth in 1595-1604, The Virgin and Child with St. Martina and St. Agnes 1597 – 99. He painted St. Francis many times. He believed in his saints and with the way they blessed his art with their images and grace they believed in him. His greatest works I believe were his high altars. The last great commission was for the Hospital of St. John Extra Muros. It was there on the high and lateral altars he painted “The Fifth Seal the Apocalypse.” Unfinished at the time of his death, his son modified it (1625 – 1628) and presented what his father started. El Greco managed once again to capture the vision described in the book of Revelations and put it to canvas in emotional illusionism expressionism recording history again. Now if we can only imagine.