Jesus Carrying the Cross
I suppose there are cynics who, looking at El Greco's painting of Jesus Carrying the Cross in the Diocesan Museum in Cuenca (the charming Spanish city 100 miles east of Madrid on the Júcar River) and comparing it with his St Peter's Tears, might raise the Status Quo objection.
For them, in the same way that the 70s "rock" band had only one tune which they spent a career setting different words to, the faces might be too similar. I’m not sure what Domenikos Theotocopoulos would have responded, but it may have been along the lines that anguish and despair set their own very particular stamp on any man of character.
For me, at any rate, this painting was the highlight of a visit to this gem of a museum in the former Bishop's Palace, located between the Cathedral and the famous hanging houses (casas colgadas). Move quickly through the first couple of rooms containing dark and forbidding tapestries and savour the paintings in the lower chambers.
For company we had only a research student taking flash photographs of the exhibits, who kindly told me he wouldn't let on to the solitary member of the staff at the museum if I wanted to take a few photos. What I didn’t tell him was that she had gone back out into the courtyard after selling us our tickets (just 2 euros) to have another cigarette. All very Spanish.
I suppose there are cynics who, looking at El Greco's painting of Jesus Carrying the Cross in the Diocesan Museum in Cuenca (the charming Spanish city 100 miles east of Madrid on the Júcar River) and comparing it with his St Peter's Tears, might raise the Status Quo objection.
For them, in the same way that the 70s "rock" band had only one tune which they spent a career setting different words to, the faces might be too similar. I’m not sure what Domenikos Theotocopoulos would have responded, but it may have been along the lines that anguish and despair set their own very particular stamp on any man of character.
For me, at any rate, this painting was the highlight of a visit to this gem of a museum in the former Bishop's Palace, located between the Cathedral and the famous hanging houses (casas colgadas). Move quickly through the first couple of rooms containing dark and forbidding tapestries and savour the paintings in the lower chambers.
For company we had only a research student taking flash photographs of the exhibits, who kindly told me he wouldn't let on to the solitary member of the staff at the museum if I wanted to take a few photos. What I didn’t tell him was that she had gone back out into the courtyard after selling us our tickets (just 2 euros) to have another cigarette. All very Spanish.
St Peter's Tears
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