Evening star., 1937-04-10

goats skin, his sleeves of many folds,
are masterpieces of painting. Under
the habit there would seem to be
no body, but only soul. OF the soul,
burning of faith in Christ, the only
sign appears in few drops of blood
on his lips-the single mark Of life
in his pale, translucent face. The
color scheme is only gray, dark brown,
black and white, but with this limited
range the painter has succeeded in
bringing out the greatest expression
in this real poem of divine exaltation."
THIS painting formerly belonged to
the Marquise de la Onadra Of
Valencia. Augustus Mayer, an author
ity on the works of El Greco, attests
it 'a genuine and characteristic work
of the master, fully signed" and states
that, in his opinion, 1t is "the finest
and earliest version Of the subject,
painted probably between 1886 and
1891" 1t is in most excellent state
Of preservation.
Ell Greco's reputation has climaxed
within the last 25 years. Like Philip
II (Who is said by a great writer to
have preferred" the husks CT Italian
art to the kernel of art Of his own
country and day, quickened by Faith,
horror and fear), critics for centuries
set aside the paintings Of Ell Greco
as grotesque, forced, even blundering
Even 20 years ago well-knoWn critic
prophesied that his vogue would not
last. But with better understanding
OF the background Of history, the work
Of this painter has steadily become
better understood and his great genius
more fully appreciated. Modernists
have found In it excuse for exagger-
alton, but when Ell Greco distorted a
figure, it was with definite purpose to
emphasize spiritual rather than mate
rial content.
1t would be hard to imagine a
greater contrast than between Venice
as El Greco must have known it and
Toledo as he found 1.-THE, one 50
colorful, basking in the sun, the other
so grim and gray-a city of granite
set among arid hills. In the Venice
where he first practiced his art, life
passed as pageant Of splendor, care
free and gay; in the Toledo to which
he went, the battle of religious faith
against suppositious error was being
waged with fanatical intensity and
cruelty beyond belief. 1t was this
frightful conflict which swept him
away and found expression in his art.
Toward the end Of his life, as Ellie
Faure says, he painted as one in hallu-
cination, the preoccupation of ex-
pressing the spirit alone pursuing him.
This prepossession Is strongly felt in
the Saint Francis in Extasis" of the
Greek Legation.
But Ell Greco was far from the
fanatic. No man loved beauty and
esthetic pleasure more than he, and
in whatever he painted, there Is an air
of elegance which cannot be over
looked and which invariably added
distinction. The origin of the ele-
gance, M. Faure traces to his Greek
birth and heritage-the Greek Of the
forgotten ages, the Helene. 1t was
this wrath, which despite having
drunk from the golden cup Of Venice,
stayed ever with him and thus again
manifested in his person and achieve
ment "the impotence of genius to de-
tach itself from its roots" It was
Theotocopuli, the Cretan, that in that
dark day Of the Counter Reformation
in Toledo delivered the Spanish soul" {"
In the whole history Of art there Is
no more interesting chapter.
When on view in the Phillips Memo