El Greco and Velazquez

Catalog description

This course will study the great Spanish artists El Greco and Velázquez in relation to the major developments in 16th- and 17th- century European painting and in the context of the social, political, and intellectual concerns of Habsburg Spain, as well as the particular cultural milieu in which they each worked. We will trace El Greco’s career from his native Crete to Venice and Rome and finally to Toledo, and Velázquez’s from the commercial metropolis of Seville to the court in Madrid. In addition, we will examine their modern reception by art historians, artists, and collectors in Spain and beyond.