A work of art illustrating yesterday's great Feast
Domenikos Theotokopoulos called El Greco (Candia, Greece, 1541-Toledo, Spain, 1614) , Pentecost, c. 1600, oil/canvas, 275 x 127 cm, Museo del Prado, Madrid
This painting was one of six executed around 1596-1600 by El Greco, Spanish painter of Greek origin, for the main altarpiece of an Augustine College in Madrid. Its place on the right side of the upper level explains its narrow format. The use of elongated bodies and of cold colours, intense and contrasting, is typical of his late manner.
Greco follows fairly closely the account of the Acts of the Apostles (2:1-5). Unlike many other painters, he does not however insist on the dramatic arrival of the whirling wind in the closed room. He treats the topic in a more subdued tone. Having deposited the tongues of fire on each participant, the dove of the Holy Spirit hovers over the room, bathing in ghostly light. The marked foreshortening of the two apostles on the foreground allows Greco to integrate more body gestures. The attitudes and the facial expressions of the apostles do not express fear but wonder and gratitude at the fulfilment of Christ’s promise during his farewell discourse. Following the tradition, Mary is there occupying the central position but Greco has added Saint Mary Magdalene and a thirteen man, probably a portrait of himself, or of a close friend - the humanist Antonio de Covarrubias.
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