El Greco

For the first time in Milan, in the spaces of the First Floor of the Palazzo Reale, an extensive and unprecedented exhibition project dedicated to the great painter known as El Greco.

A unique opportunity to present the work of the Cretan artist in the light of the latest research on his work: El Greco in fact proposes a profound and innovative historical-critical reflection, whose strong points are the careful reconsideration of the impact of Italian models in the artist's training and the proposal of an interpretation of the results of the last Toledo period of El Greco's activity in terms of a conscious recovery of a compositional approach in the broad Byzantine sense.

The exhibition itinerary is divided into sections designed to constantly focus on the artist's relationship with the places where he lived in order to offer visitors a precise historical-biographical reconstruction with great clarity and immediacy of impact. At the same time, it establishes a series of stringent comparisons with great Roman and Venetian painting, bringing out the powerful theme of the labyrinth to emphasise how El Greco's life was a sort of immense novel of formation that took place between the cultural capitals of the Mediterranean.

For the realisation of this exhibition project, major international museums have loaned authentic masterpieces, including the famous St. Martin and the Beggar and the Laocoon from the National Gallery in Washington, the Portrait of Jeronimo De Cevallos from the Prado Museum, the two Annunciations from the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, and St. John and St. Francis from the Uffizi Galleries. In addition, the exhibition boasts the presence of extraordinary works from ecclesiastical institutions that are coming to Italy for the first time, such as the Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian from Palencia Cathedral, the Expulsion of the Merchants from the Temple from the Church of San Ginés in Madrid and the Coronation of the Virgin from Illescas.

The exhibition is promoted and produced by the Municipality of Milan Culture, Palazzo Reale and MondoMostre, with the contribution of the Embassy of Spain in Italy, curated by Juan Antonio García Castro, Palma Martínez - Burgos García and Thomas Clement Salomon.