Contrapposto in El Greco’s Portrait of Cardinal Don Fernanado Niño De Guevara and its possible prototype

Abstract

El Greco’s career in Italy brought him into contact with diverse sixteenth-century artistic influences that affected his practice of portraiture. This article focusses on one of his supreme masterworks, the Portrait of Cardinal Don Fernanado Niño De Guevara. It is argued that its possible prototype of the depiction of the Cardinal is Michelangelo’s Moses in the Basilica of San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome. In the representation of both figures the application of contrapposto, a harmony of compositional opposites and tensions, is remarkable. Furthermore, the gazes of both are turned to the left, a sinistra.

El Greco se loopbaan in Italië het hom met verskillende sestiende-eeuse kunsinvloede in aanraking gebring wat sy praktyk van portrettering beïnvloed het. Hierdie artikel fokus op een van sy uitstaande meesterwerke, die Portret van Kardinaal Don Fernanado Niño De Guevara. Dit word gestel dat die moontlike prototipe van die voorstelling van die Kardinaal Michelangelo se Moses in die Basilika van San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome, is. Die aanwending van contrapposto, ’n harmonie van komposisionele teenoorgesteldes en spannings, is merkwaardig in die voorstelling van albei figure. Voorts is die blik van albei na links, a sinistra, gerig.