Christ Cleansing the Temple
El Grecoprobably before 1570
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
Washington, DC, United States
In this tempestuous scene, El Greco depicted an angry Christ driving the moneychangers from the Temple. An uncommon theme, it became increasingly popular in the latter half of the sixteenth century, promoted by the Council of Trent as a symbol of the Catholic church's attempt to purify itself after the Protestant Reformation. Here El Greco portrayed partially draped women and bare-chested men writhing and twisting to escape the blows of Christ's scourge, emphasizing the agitation of the participants and exaggerating their irreverence. The setting is one of classical grandeur, more reminiscent of an Italian Renaissance palace than of the sacred precincts of the Temple in Jerusalem.
This panel was painted in Venice before El Greco made his way to Spain. The illusionistic space and voluptuous figures in this early work are vastly different from the flattened space and stylized forms of Byzantine art, which continued to dominate painting in El Greco's native Crete. El Greco's arrival in Venice, in about 1567, coincided with a high point in that city's artistic achievement. That the Cretan artist had absorbed the influence of the Venetian masters and taught himself a new way of painting is evident in the movement and drama, solidly modeled figures, and boldly brushed colors of this panel. The influence of the Venetians is equally evident in the elaborate architectural setting with its complicated perspective.
More information on this painting can be found in the Gallery publication _Spanish Paintings of the Fifteenth through Nineteenth Centuries_, which is available as a free PDF <u>https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/publications/pdfs/spanish-painting-15th-19th-centuries.pdf</u>
- Title: Christ Cleansing the Temple
- Creator: El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos)
- Date Created: probably before 1570
- Physical Dimensions: overall: 65.4 x 83.2 cm (25 3/4 x 32 3/4 in.) framed: 87.6 x 106.7 x 7.6 cm (34 1/2 x 42 x 3 in.)
- Provenance: Possibly in the collection of the Marqués de Salamanca [d. 1866], Madrid.[1] Sir John Charles Robinson [1824-1913], London;[2] (his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 7-8 May 1868, 1st day, no. 25); Sir Francis Cook, 1st Bt. [1817-1901], Doughty House, Richmond, Surrey;[3] by inheritance to his son, Sir Frederick Lucas Cook, 2nd Bt. [1844-1920], Doughty House;[4] by inheritance to his son, Sir Herbert Frederick Cook, 3rd Bt. [1868-1939], Doughty House;[5] by inheritance to his son, Sir Francis Ferdinand Maurice Cook, 4th Bt. [1907-1978], Doughty House, and Cothay Manor, Somerset; sold May or June 1955 to (Margaret Drey, London);[5] (Rosenberg and Stiebel, New York); sold 17 October 1955 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[6] gift 1957 to NGA. [1] Neil Maclaren, _National Gallery Catalogues: The Spanish School_, rev. ed. by Allan Braham (London, 1960), 27, fn. 27 (under no. 1457). In an 1895 letter in the archives of the National Gallery, London, Sir J. C. Robinson indicated that he had bought the version of the _Expulsion_ now in London from the Marqués de Salamanca in Madrid "some 15 or 20 years ago". Because other evidence indicates that the London painting could not have been obtained in Madrid, Maclaren suggests that Robinson may have purchased the Washington version (which the baronet also once owned) from the Marqués de Salamanca. [2] John Charles Robinson, _Memoranda on Fifty Pictures_, London, 1868: 38-41, no. 28. [3] More than a dozen paintings from the Robinson sale went to Cook. To judge from annotated auction catalogues, some were bought outright, while others such as NGA 1957.14.4 were bought in and subsequently offered to Cook. [4] _Abridged Catalogue of the Pictures at Doughty House, Richmond, Belonging to Sir Frederick Cook, Bart., M.P., Visconde de Monserrate_, London, 1903: 22, no. 5; Maurice Brockwell, _Catalogue of the Paintings at Doughty House, Richmond, and Elsewhere in the Collection of Sir Frederick Cook, Bt., Visconde de Monserrate_, London, 1915: 3:no. 495. [5] See copies of correspondence in NGA curatorial files, from the Cook Collection Archive in care of John Somerville, England. [6] A copy of the 17 October 1955 bill from Rosenberg & Stiebel to the Kress Foundation is in NGA curatorial files. See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/514.
- Medium: oil on panel
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