Christ Cleansing the Temple
El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos)·probably before 1570
Historical Context
El Greco's Christ Cleansing the Temple, probably painted before 1570, is his earliest surviving painting and documents his style before the move to Italy that transformed his approach. Painted in his native Crete in the Byzantine icon-painting tradition he had trained in, the work shows Christ driving money-changers from the Temple in Jerusalem — a subject that combined religious narrative with social criticism, since the Temple's commercial activities were a target of reform movements. The composition shows the influence of Venetian prints circulating in Crete, indicating the young El Greco's awareness of mainland Italian developments before his departure for Venice around 1567. Comparing this early work with his late masterpieces reveals one of the most dramatic artistic evolutions in Western art.
Technical Analysis
The early Italian-period technique shows El Greco synthesizing Venetian and Roman influences. The architectural perspective and muscular figures are more conventional than his later Spanish works, with richer, warmer color and more solid, three-dimensional modeling. The dynamic composition of figures in motion already hints at the expressive intensity of his mature style.
Provenance
Possibly in the collection of the Marqués de Salamanca [d. 1866], Madrid.[1] Sir John Charles Robinson [1824-1913], London;[2] (his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 7-8 May 1868, 1st day, no. 25); Sir Francis Cook, 1st Bt. [1817-1901], Doughty House, Richmond, Surrey;[3] by inheritance to his son, Sir Frederick Lucas Cook, 2nd Bt. [1844-1920], Doughty House;[4] by inheritance to his son, Sir Herbert Frederick Cook, 3rd Bt. [1868-1939], Doughty House;[5] by inheritance to his son, Sir Francis Ferdinand Maurice Cook, 4th Bt. [1907-1978], Doughty House, and Cothay Manor, Somerset; sold May or June 1955 to (Margaret Drey, London);[5] (Rosenberg and Stiebel, New York); sold 17 October 1955 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[6] gift 1957 to NGA. [1] Neil Maclaren, _National Gallery Catalogues: The Spanish School_, rev. ed. by Allan Braham (London, 1960), 27, fn. 27 (under no. 1457). In an 1895 letter in the archives of the National Gallery, London, Sir J. C. Robinson indicated that he had bought the version of the _Expulsion_ now in London from the Marqués de Salamanca in Madrid "some 15 or 20 years ago". Because other evidence indicates that the London painting could not have been obtained in Madrid, Maclaren suggests that Robinson may have purchased the Washington version (which the baronet also once owned) from the Marqués de Salamanca. [2] John Charles Robinson, _Memoranda on Fifty Pictures_, London, 1868: 38-41, no. 28. [3] More than a dozen paintings from the Robinson sale went to Cook. To judge from annotated auction catalogues, some were bought outright, while others such as NGA 1957.14.4 were bought in and subsequently offered to Cook. [4] _Abridged Catalogue of the Pictures at Doughty House, Richmond, Belonging to Sir Frederick Cook, Bart., M.P., Visconde de Monserrate_, London, 1903: 22, no. 5; Maurice Brockwell, _Catalogue of the Paintings at Doughty House, Richmond, and Elsewhere in the Collection of Sir Frederick Cook, Bt., Visconde de Monserrate_, London, 1915: 3:no. 495. [5] See copies of correspondence in NGA curatorial files, from the Cook Collection Archive in care of John Somerville, England. [6] A copy of the 17 October 1955 bill from Rosenberg & Stiebel to the Kress Foundation is in NGA curatorial files. See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/514.
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