ABSTRACT
The extreme spirituality that suffuses his work, together with certain other more specific features such as the influence of Christian Neoplatonism and the use of mythological subjects (admittedly less prominent in the paintings of El Greco than in those of many of his contemporaries, though present none the less) all point to the fact that El Greco was a profoundly cultivated artist, a humanist painter. A contemporary artist, Francisco Pacheco of Seville, who visited El Greco in Toledo in 1611, expressed boundless admiration for his cultivated personality, calling him ‘singular in everything, just as in painting’ (‘por ser en todo singular, como lo fue en la pintura’) and ‘a great philosopher, sharp in his observations’, adding that he was also ‘a writer of books on painting, sculpture and architecture’ (‘fue gran filófoso de agudos dichos y ecribió de la pintura, escultura y arquitectura’).1 The publication of the inventory of books in El Greco’s library has been particularly revealing: it enables us to appreciate the breadth of his reading and interests, and to determine with greater clarity the extent of his learning and linguistic knowledge.2 Furthermore, the publication of his frequently extensive autograph notes written in the margins of two books that were once in his library opened up new, fascinating perspectives (Plate 10):3 the confident, elegant handwriting indicates a man of
1 Cossío, El Greco, 28-9. In the list, made on 7 August 1621, of the books in the library of El Greco’s son Jorge Manuel, mention is made of ‘zinco libros de arquitetura manuscriptos, el uno con trazas’ (San Román, El Greco en Toledo, 20, 91), which can safely be assumed to be the writings on architecture by El Greco noted by Pacheco, though none of the books in his library survives today. See also J.J.M. González, ‘El Greco, arquitecto’, Goya 26 (1958), 86-8, who discusses El Greco’s writings on Vitruvius.
