Still Inspiring, 400 Years Later

By CAROL VOGEL

El Greco in New York: His “St. Jerome” and “View of Toledo.” Credit Metropolitan Museum of Art, Robert Lehman Collection; Metropolitan Museum of Art, H. O. Havemeyer Collection

Since the 19th century, artists have looked to El Greco’s intense portraits, dramatic mythological scenes and tempestuous landscapes as a source of inspiration. Now, his fans in New York will have the chance to see an unusually large number of his works.

To mark the 400th anniversary of the death of El Greco in Spain (he was born Domenikos Theotokopoulos in Greece) the Metropolitan Museum of Art (metmuseum.org) and the Frick Collection (1 East 70th Street, Manhattan; frick.org) will be holding special exhibitions of his paintings from Tuesday through Feb. 1. Between the two institutions, the city will have the largest showing of El Greco’s paintings outside the Prado in Madrid.

On view at the Met will be nine paintings from its own holdings, with six from the Hispanic Society of America. Since the Frick Collection cannot lend any art acquired by its founder, Henry Clay Frick, as stipulated in his will, it will have a celebration of its own, displaying its three paintings — “Purification of the Temple,” “St. Jerome” and the portrait of Vincenzo Anastagi — together in its East Gallery.

A version of this article appears in print on November 2, 2014, on page AR4 of the New York edition with the headline: Still Inspiring, 400 Years Later. 

The New York Times,OCT. 31, 2014