Poetry

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There’s a lot we don’t know about El Greco, but his reputation as a touchy, litigious character survives. He moved to Rome in 1570, found protection in the Palazzo Farnese, but was writing to Cardinal Farnese in 1572 to complain that he “did not deserve to be thrown out and sent away because I had committed no fault.” We do not know what El Greco is alleged to have done to give offense, but the voluminous if sketchy record of his squabbles with friends and patrons suggests that giving offense was something he came by naturally. Although the work of Michelangelo (1475-1564) clearly made a deep impression on his own work, El Greco is said to have offered to replace Michelangelo’s “Last Judgment” at the Sistine Chapel with something else just as good but more decorative.

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books, arts & manners anyone’s disciple, personal or stylistic.

There’s a lot we don’t know about El Greco, but his reputation as a touchy, litigious character survives. He moved to Rome in 1570, found protection in the Palazzo Farnese, but was writing to Cardinal Farnese in 1572 to complain that he “did not deserve to be thrown out and sent away because I had committed no fault.” We do not know what El Greco is alleged to have done to give offense, but the voluminous if sketchy record of his squabbles with friends and patrons suggests that giving offense was something he came by naturally. Although the work of Michelangelo (1475-1564) clearly made a deep impression on his own work, El Greco is said to have offered to replace Michelangelo’s “Last Judgment” at the Sistine Chapel with something else just as good but more decorative.