El Greco (1541-1614) was a painter of the so-called Counter-Reformation in which the Roman Catholic Church responded to the sweeping reforms demanded by the Protestant sects emerging in Europe (Adams, 312). He worked in Spain from about 1577 during the era in which Counter-Reformation influence was at its highest. According to H.W. Janson (467), the artist's early training in Venice established a strong element of Byzantine iconography and style within his work, which is often characterized as representative of the Mannerist style. Mannerism, as noted by Adams (306), had a strong propensity for virtuosity and artifice, but El Greco was placed passionately in the "service of Christian mysticism."
This is readily apparent in one of his most compelling works, The Resurrection of Christ, which was painted between 1597 and 1604. This oil on canvas rendition of the ascension of the resurrected Christ into the heavens is monumental in scale, standing 9 feet, four inches high and 4 feet, 2 inches wide (Adams, 312). Currently held in the Prado in Madrid, this depiction of Christ shows Him rising in light against a dark background. His halo forms a diamond shape behind his head and illuminates his elongated facial features. Beneath Him, the Roman soldiers reveal their anger at the fact that their victim is escaping the death they have delivered to him. Some, said Adams (312), "are blinded by the divine light of Christ."
The figures in this painting are typically Mannerist (Janson, 467). That is to say that they are extremely elongated and stylized, shown in near-complete nudity in some cases and always as highly muscular figures with a raw strength. This strength is counterbalanced by the sublime, serene expression on the face of Christ as He rises above the material world to the nimbus of heaven, reflected in a cloud-like oval of light-infused matter behind his ascending figure.
Christ carries the white banner of ho...