Prado reflects El Greco’s influence on Picasso’s analytical cubism.

Among the many and varied influences of other masters that come together in Picasso’s work, the influence of El Greco is perhaps the earliest and most decisive, because at the end of the 19th century a man from Málaga had “almost a teenager, lives in Madrid and is a student at the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts”Commissioner Carmen Giménez recalled at a press conference this Monday.

From his letters and drawings from that formative period, he is known to have spent more time copying the great masters at the Museo de Prado than at the Academy. “Picasso’s father was angry with his son for being so enthusiastic about El Greco,” added Giménez.

‘Greco, Velázquez, inspire me’ or ‘I, El Greco’ can be read in drawings from those formative years. A full statement of intent for a young student.

While almost all writers agree that El Greco’s influence should be limited almost exclusively to Picasso’s youth (Málaga, 1881 – Mougins, France, 1973), the exhibition, much more “deep and permanent”because it was particularly crucial to the development of analytical cubism in works such as “The Hand Enthusiast” or “Acordionista”.

Doménikos Theotokópoulos, aka El Greco (Candia, Greece, 1541 – Toledo, 1614) accompanied Picasso throughout his career. In the first stage of cubism, the subject is divided into geometric pieces that accumulate to form an image.

The curator explained that Picasso created an illusion of relief and depth that “relies on shadowing and in which the two-dimensionality of the canvas comes to the fore.”

This exhibition, which consists of only twelve works, You can see it until September 17It offers the opportunity to understand the relationship between both artists, for example, the relationship between two original sensibilities that speak of a redefinition of artistic reality through volume and colour, composition, perspective, space, light or the challenge of academic dogma.

The exhibition also hosts testimonies highlighting Picasso’s special vital and artistic connection with the Prado Museum. a relationship that started when he was a copycat and ended with his appointment as a manager..

Miguel Falomir, director of the Prado Museum, recalled that El Greco took three hundred years to be understood, but when he emerged from oblivion and “become one of the greatest artists”, he provided Picasso the keys to definitively breaking it. art of the past and pillars of traditional representation.

Adding that this was a “greatly selected” exhibition, Falomir explained that “Prado has the best Greco collection”, adding that four of the selected ones came from outside, “Because they’re the best talkers” With works by Picasso.