Sparkling Evening Talk

'From Crete to Toledo: El Greco and his Influences'.

Born and trained in Crete, El Greco enjoyed success in Venice and Rome and then in 1577 settled in Toledo, Spain. Here he spent the rest of his life, producing works characterised by astonishing exaggerations of form, distortions of proportion and bold, brooding colours. Many of these paintings can still be seen in their original location, including The Disrobing of Christ which hangs in Toledo Cathedral. A smaller version of this painting can be found at Upton House.

In this lecture, which complements our programming theme of artists and their muses, highly respected art historian Sian Walters will explore how the mystical appearance of later works, such as these, reveal a wide variety of sometimes surprising influences, exploring to what extent they reflect the cultural, religious and socio-economic climate of Toledo in the early 17th century.

Director of Art History in Focus and lecturer for the National Gallery, The Arts Society, The Wallace Collection, Friends of the Royal Academy, The London Art History Society, The Art Fund and many other art societies and colleges in the UK and Europe, Sian spends much of the year lecturing abroad, particularly in Italy and Spain. In 2016 she was named a Highly Commended finalist in the Wanderlust World’s Best Guide Awards and asked to teach the first online course for The National Gallery (Stories of Art) in September 2020.