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His obsession with El Greco started when he went to study in Madrid where he was impressed by El Greco’s magnificent heads. As early as 1899 he had filled page after page of a sketchbook with caricatures of Greco-like portraits, often with flamboyant ruff collars, exaggerating their pointed chins, their schematic quality and their hyper-refined tonality. One of his heads even had the inscription: Yo El Greco, yo Greco! Shortly afterwards Picasso’s Blue Period followed and there his pictures were inhabited by distorted, emaciated beings inspired by El Greco. [5]. Boy Leading a Horse, is one of Picasso's most direct citations from El Greco. He took much of the painting from El Greco's Saint Martin and the Beggar, including the painting's proportions, the horse’s rendering of the legs, the bleak background, limited palette and the exaggerated, elongated bodies.
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However, his repeated insistence on limiting the illusion of depth has a second, functional explanation. The Assumption of the Virgin, was intended for an altarpiece, which had to be carefully composed for visibility and legibility, even in a small space. The solution, which was followed by El Greco was to deploy large-scale figures along the frontal plane of the picture. In these circumstances, the illusion of depth became unnecessary, if not undesirable, and thus was minimized or eliminated. This tactic is also employed, in the painting of El Greco most admired by Picasso, the Burial of the Count of Orgaz. [16] In his The Burial of Casagemas Picasso divided the painting into two zones, like El Greco has done in his painting. There is an earthly sphere with the burial and a heavenly sphere, or rather how young men might envisage heaven, a place full of beautiful, naked women. In both paintings human bodies are elongated. It has often been said that El Greco used these distorted proportions to express spiritual fervor and achieve a supernatural remoteness. In Picasso’s art, on the other hand, this quality of remoteness does not point to any divine sphere rather, his figures are detached from the world because they are a symbol for distressed and oppressed humanity. Another stylistic device which Picasso borrowed are the cloudy streaks of color that permeate the
However, his repeated insistence on limiting the illusion of depth has a second, functional explanation. The Assumption of the Virgin, was intended for an altarpiece, which had to be carefully composed for visibility and legibility, even in a small space. The solution, which was followed by El Greco was to deploy large-scale figures along the frontal plane of the picture. In these circumstances, the illusion of depth became unnecessary, if not undesirable, and thus was minimized or eliminated. This tactic is also employed, in the painting of El Greco most admired by Picasso, the Burial of the Count of Orgaz. [16] In his The Burial of Casagemas Picasso divided the painting into two zones, like El Greco has done in his painting. There is an earthly sphere with the burial and a heavenly sphere, or rather how young men might envisage heaven, a place full of beautiful, naked women. In both paintings human bodies are elongated. It has often been said that El Greco used these distorted proportions to express spiritual fervor and achieve a supernatural remoteness. In Picasso’s art, on the other hand, this quality of remoteness does not point to any divine sphere rather, his figures are detached from the world because they are a symbol for distressed and oppressed humanity. Another stylistic device which Picasso borrowed are the cloudy streaks of color that permeate the