“When we contemplate a painting by El Greco, we experience not only the state of mind of a painter, the least important aspect, but also that of an entire period in history.” Writes Emilio Bodrero, an Italian historian and politician.

Milan prepares to welcome, with some trepidation, an unprecedented exhibition: El Greco. The nickname of Domínikos Theotokópoulos, a painter, sculptor and architect of Greek origin, El Greco lived in Italy, where he developed close ties with Venice and Rome, before moving to Spain, where he became one of the most important figures of the late Spanish Renaissance. He returns to Italy, to Milan for the first time, from 11 October 2023 to 11 February 2024 at Palazzo Reale.

The exhibition takes the form of an examination of the influence if Italian models on the development of the maestro. The places in which he lived and the influence of his peers will help visitors not only to reconstruct his biography but also his artistic technique.

Masterpieces on loan from the world’s most important museums, such as Saint Martin and the Beggar and Laocoön, both from the National Gallery of Washington. The portrait of Jeronimo De Cevallos from the Prado Museum, two Annunciations from the Thyssen-Bornemisza museum, Saint John the Evangelist and Saint Francis from the Uffizi Galleries, as well as extraordinary ecclesiastical works that will be coming to Italy for the first time ever.

A painter of colour and a master of form, El Greco rejected all of the classic principles of painting to explore a new philosophy of art, where colour played as important a role as the image itself. As Francisco Pacheco del Rio, a Spanish painter who visited El Greco in 1611, wrote, “Large sections of pure, unblended colour, as though bold signs of his skill”.

The exhibition, curated by Juan Antonio García Castro, Palma Martínez-Burgos García and Thomas Clement Salomon, will be one of the most significant events on the Milanese cultural scene.