A major retrospective devoted to El Greco, ahead of the 400th anniversary of the great Spanish painter’s death. El Greco (born Doménikos Theotokópoulos, 1541-1614) was active in the Spanish Golden Age, in the 16th to 17th centuries. Along with Velazquez and Goya, he counts among Spain’s three great painters. Born in Crete, he trained in Venice and Rome then moved to Toledo, Spain. There, he won high acclaim among clerics and luminaries with religious paintings whose figures elongate into flame-like forms and with portraits capturing the sitter’s essential character. Picasso and other great masters of the 20th century also admired El Greco’s works.
This exhibition will present 51 works of oils and tempera on loan from world-renowned art museums around the world, including the Prado, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Boston Art Museum. The Virgin of the Immaculate Conception, a painting over three meters in height, will also be displayed in Japan for the first time in the largest El Greco exhibition ever held in this country.