Spanish Students Visit El Greco Exhibit at the Met

On January 13, the Spanish II and IV classes followed up their Spanish cultural lesson on El Greco with a visit to The Metropolitan Museum of Art to view the museum’s mini-retrospective on El Greco commemorating the 400th anniversary of the Renaissance artist’s death. Spanish teacher Giurissa Grace reports: “In Spanish class, our lesson centered on El Greco’s life, the major themes that emerged from his artwork and why he was misunderstood in his time. I invited Art Department Chair Nik Vlahos to accompany us on the field trip to focus on El Greco’s artistic techniques." Mr. Vlahos adds: “We looked at El Greco's art and spoke about how his contemporaries depicted space as well as how he was trained to depict space having studied as an iconographer. We looked at how El Greco fused these two very different ways of painting space and arrived at his own technique. Especially with the Vision of St. John there is a flat 'unrealistic' space that reinforces the concept of an otherworldly vision. We also paid close attention to his use of color and how it stays consistent from painting to painting.”