A Fragile Landscape

Stephen Zawodzinksi , OWU alumnus (Class of 2012) and a recent graduate of the MA program at the University of York, shares his thoughts  on El Greco’s painting View of Toledo on his blog, Existing Between Art and Life. Of his work and his blog Zawodzinski writes: “I am highly interested in medieval, early modern, and Islamic art and architecture, and I specialize in the material culture, art, and architecture of early modern Spain. This is a blog for all of my explorations about art, architecture, and the histories of both.”

“This landscape is arresting for its juxtaposition of movement and stillness, the mute noise of imagined wind with the almost morbid silence of a seemingly empty city. El Greco seems to portray the city as though it were a city of ivory or bone. But then, the city’s buildings seems more ephemeral, both solid in their shadowy mass and fragile in the shards of light that cut across the face of each building portrayed in the painting. To me, El Greco’s Toledo seems to be a pearlescent ghost buffeted by the wind and sun.”

Read the full post at:   http://goldandgarnet.wordpress.com/2013/12/27/view-of-toledo/