Photos of El Greco & Goya paintings in the Prado Museum + other Artists

El Greco

Domenikos Theotokopoulos became well known world-wide as El Greco - The Greek. His magnificent works of art along with other masters such as Velazquez, Goya and many others can be found inside of the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain.

Velazquez's works of art (the one's I photographed that day) have already been featured in another hub. As long as one does not use flash photography, pictures are allowed to be taken inside the Prado Museum. This was amazing to us because in many museums no photography, flash or otherwise is allowed.

This hub will address the other photos taken inside the Prado Museum the day my husband and I took a tour many years ago.

Let me first say that the Prado is large and absolutely filled with wondrous works of art.

As I already mentioned in the Velazquez hub, we left the museum after many hours of being absolutely transfixed in front of one amazing painting after another.

When we exited the Prado and went outside and discussed it, we agreed that we both felt as though we had experienced sensory overload.

My husband and I both appreciate art and have visited many museums in the past. This reaction was something new to both of us.

Besides the beauty and expertise of each painting and work of art, the sheer size of some of the paintings...especially the El Greco paintings perhaps added to our feelings of being overwhelmed.

Maybe it was the religious subject matter adding to the overall effect?

Suffice it to say...it left its mark on both of us.

If we ever return to Madrid, you can be sure that another visit to the Prado Museum will be on our list of desired things to do.

El Greco was born in Crete and was trained as an artist in Italy.

He had been a pupil of the artist Titian and in addition to being influenced by his teacher, Tintoretto and Michelangelo also affected the way he ultimately expressed himself on canvas.

He settled in Toledo, Spain when he was in his mid-thirties.

Great religious spirit dominated Spain during that era.

His massive canvasses are filled with paintings expressing his ideas of Christianity.

We saw a great number of them in the Prado Museum, but we also saw huge numbers of his masterpiece paintings that remain to this day in his adopted city of Toledo where he created many of them.

One thing that is striking in El Greco paintings and very recognizable is his use of elongated figures. This is realism with a twist all of his own creation.

Was this due to his zealous religious spirit being carried out in that dramatic way, or some astigmatism in his eyes affecting his vision? We can only speculate.

Standing in front of one of those extra large paintings with religious subject matter, the distorted body shapes assume even larger than life proportions. They are definitely awe inspiring!

Francisco Goya

The Prado Museum is the depository for Spanish art in the world that has no equal.

In addition to El Greco (who adopted Spain as his homeland) and Velazquez, Francisco Goya's works of art help fill the second floor of the Prado Museum with their individualized styles of what was transpiring in Spain during their lives.

The Catholic Church exerted much influence...in fact ruled the way people lived and died, having control over most of the lands and intellectual life.

Having gone through the Inquisition where suppression of heresy was the goal, religious fervour was still at an all time high in Toledo when El Greco painted his towering canvasses.

Velazquez had painted the Royalty in the Capitol of Spain during their waning days of power.

Francisco Goya came from a background of poverty and isolation.

Born in the desolate village of Fuendetodos in the province of Aragon on March 30, 1746, Goya ended up living in Madrid by the age of seventeen.

Like Velazquez, the background of his family was that of coming from the hidalgo class.

It was the lowest order of Spanish nobility but forbade its members to do any manual labor.

This was in a time of economic upheaval countrywide; poor sanitary conditions and stagnant living conditons in general. The Church's influence pretty much assured the continuance of just barely livable conditions. Most people's lives were pretty bleak.

Goya was able to get out of this mired existence by being an artist and painter and thus having some upward mobility. He grabbed the chance, and because he had talent, he succeeded.

What we are able to see with Goya's paintings and etchings are a veracity of what was swirling around him and in his country of Spain...both the pretty and the ugly events and happenings.

Due to an illness, he became deaf at the age of 46.

Goya amazingly painted one of the best known nude paintings of the time. The Naked Maja and also the The Clothed Maja. Amazing for this reason...the Inquisition was still in full swing and he could have been jailed and his paintings banned. Speculation has it that one of his wealthy and influential patrons probably came to his defense and, in effect, rescued him from more dire results meted out from the Church.

Goya painted beautiful portraits of wealthy patrons.

He also painted grotesque creatures that showed the dark side of human nature.

Francisco Goya art certainly engages one. His creations foreshadowed the modern art movement.

Other artist's work in the Prado Museum...

These are some other photos taken the day my husband and I were on a guided tour inside the Prado Museum.

Elena (from hubpages) has generously offered to try and identify some (or all) of these by title and artist. So this part is a work in progress. I have numbered these paintings for easier identification later. She is so fortunate to live near the fabulous Prado Museum.

Thanking Elena and everyone else for taking this journey with us.

The Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain is a vast treasure trove holding not only world renowned Spanish art of Velazquez, El Greco and Francisco Goya, but is the repository for many other great artist's work as well.

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