Wandering off the Byzantine Path: El Greco’s “Modernism”
The Dr. John and Helen Collis Lecture
- Lecture
Suzanne and Paul Westlake Performing Arts Center
About The Event
In this lecture, Charles Barber investigates how El Greco’s Greek identity has shaped both the conception and reception of his work. First trained in the tradition of Byzantine icon painting found on Crete, El Greco developed an understanding of his own art as a form of early modern Greek painting in the course of his life. This individual manner, which is so attractive to our own era, was set aside from the story of Spanish painting written in the 17th and 18th centuries as an eccentric and alien path that was not to be followed.
Barber is the Donald Drew Egbert Professor of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University. A specialist on Byzantine art, his research and publications range from late Antiquity until the early modern period. His major publications have focused on the intellectual history of the icon.
Sponsors
All education programs at the Cleveland Museum of Art are underwritten by the CMA Fund for Education. Principal support is provided by Dieter and Susan M. Kaesgen. Major annual support is provided by Brenda and Marshall Brown, David and Robin Gunning, Eva and Rudolf Linnebach, Gail C. and Elliott L. Schlang, Shurtape Technologies, and the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation. Generous annual support is provided by an anonymous donor, Gini and Randy Barbato, the M. E. and F. J. Callahan Foundation, Dr. William A. Chilcote Jr. and Dr. Barbara S. Kaplan, Char and Chuck Fowler, the Giant Eagle Foundation, Robin Heiser, the late Marta and the late Donald M. Jack Jr., Bill and Joyce Litzler, the Logsdon Family Fund for Education, Sarah Nash, William J. and Katherine T. O’Neill, the Pickering Foundation, William Roj and Mary Lynn Durham, Betty T. and David M. Schneider, the Sally and Larry Sears Fund for Education Endowment, Roy Smith, Paula and Eugene Stevens, the Trilling Family Foundation, and the Womens Council of the Cleveland Museum of Art.
The Hellenic Preservation Society of Northeastern Ohio
