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Originally published in Dutch and translated to Spanish for the fourth centenary celebration of the death of El Greco in 2014, this book is a comprehensive study of the rediscovery of El Greco – seen as one of the most important events of its kind in art history. The Nationalization of Culture versus the Rise of Modern Art analyzes how changes in artistic taste in the second half of the nineteenth century caused a profound revision of the place of El Greco in the artistic canon. As a result, El Greco was transformed from an extravagant outsider and a secondary painter into the founder of the Spanish School and one of the principle predecessors of modern art, increasingly related to that of the Impressionists – due primarily to the German critic Julius Meier-Graefe’s influential History of Modern Art (1914). This shift in artistic preference has been attributed to the rise of modern art but Eric Storm, a cultural historian, shows that in the case of El Greco nationalist motives were even more important.
This study examines the work of painters, art critics, writers, scholars and philosophers from France, Germany and Spain, and the role of exhibitions, auctions, monuments and commemorations. Paintings and associated anecdotes are discussed, and historical debates such as El Greco’s supposed astigmatism are addressed in a highly readable and engaging style. This book will be of interest to both specialists and the interested art public.
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Preface
Introduction
1. An odd outsider
A vague recollection
A new visibility
Becoming acquainted with El Greco
A first historiographer
2. The founder of the Spanish School
The realism of Manet and his peers
Historicism and nationalism
The Velázquez mania of the art historians
3. A national hero
Manuel Bartolomé Cossío
The biography
4. The prophet of beauty
The bohemia of Barcelona
Rusiñol’s road to symbolism
Catalan modernism
El Greco once again
The high priest withdraws
5. Painter of the soul
Ignacio Zuloaga
A new generation in Madrid..
The old guard reacts
Barrès and the secret of Toledo
6. The patriarch of modern art
Collectors and exhibitions
Meier-Graefe’s road to El Greco
The Spanish journey
7. The example of the avant-garde
Allies: Rilke, Tschudi and Nemes
The critics
Der Blaue Reiter and other wild young artists
The reaction of Meier-Graefe
New syntheses
8. Spanish testator
The El Greco House
The nature of the nation
The avant-garde: Picasso
9. A wise realist
A rearguard action
The commemoration of 1914
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Illustration credits
Index
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Review endorsements from the Dutch and Spanish editions
Eric Storm sets out to explain how the
artistic re-discovery of El Greco was not a mere matter of
changing taste, but was driven by societal development, what
he terms the nationalization of culture. Herewith an extremely
relevant book at a time of debate about the definition and
value of art. Tom Verschaffel, Geschiedenis Magazine
[History Magazine], Winter 2007
In The Discovery of El Greco,
more correctly termed the Re-Discovery, Eric Storm shows how
the rise of nationalism and of modern art had an impact on
the transformation of artistic taste. Eric Storm has sketched
a fascinating picture of cultural and artistic development
in Europe in the past two centuries. De Tijd [The
Time], November 2006
An indispensable book for lovers of this
‘strange’ genius and, paradoxically, so thoroughly Spanish,
for all those who want to approach the construction of the
Western canon at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries. ... Storm addresses that aspect of the humanities
that is largely forgotten and, at the same time, so needed:
the reception of the [artistic] product of an author. David
Felipe Arranz, El Imparcial [The Impartial], August
2011
Eric Storm accurately describes how in
the course of a few years, figures as relevant as Manet, Degas,
Cossio, Rusiñol, Kandinsky, Picasso and many others, did justice
to an artist ahead of his time. ... It is a very instructive
work for those who want to delve into this spectacular artistic
event. Irene Galicia, Arte y parte [Art and Part],
Autumn 2011
Professor Storm rightly recognizes that
nationalist feelings in Spain, favouring the tradition of
realistic as opposed to idealistic art, may have distorted
Spanish responses to El Greco in the nineteenth century. His
book is an invaluable compendium of changing attitudes to
El Greco particularly from the Impressionists onwards, paying
due attention to the varying cultural contexts in which the
views were expressed, and in the Conclusion, provides a quite
admirable overview of Julius Meier-Graefe’s contribution to
the rediscovery of and spread of interest in the work of the
artist. Nigel Glendinning, Bulletin of Spanish Studies
(2014)
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Publication Details
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Paperback ISBN: |
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978-1-84519-744-5 |
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Page Extent / Format: |
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256 pp. / 229 x 152 mm |
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Release Date: |
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March 2016 |
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Illustrated: |
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Yes |
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Paperback Price: |
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£25.00 / $34.95 |
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