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Lot Essay
The pose and style of the present work is characteristic of a series of saints painted by El Greco during his final years in Toledo. Only two of these series remain completely intact today. Of uniform format, each consists of an image of Christ accompanied by representations of the twelve apostles, identified by their attributes. One set of the Apostolados (1605-10) is in the Toledo Cathedral, the second, originally from the Santiago Hospital in Santiago, now in the El Greco Museum, Toledo, was still unfinished at the time of El Greco's death in 1614. The extreme elongation and distortion to the figure of Saint Paul and the artist's extraordinary manipulation of paint, clearly suggest a date for the present painting alongside these series that were made in the final period of El Greco's life, circa 1605-14.
In addition to the images of Saint Paul in the Apostolado series in Toledo, Wethey (op. cit., pp. 102-3) notes that there were probably additional series of Apostles which have since been scattered among various collections around the world. In fact, literary references in the 17th century confirm that El Greco executed additional Apostolodos while in Toledo. In 1622-3 Jorge Manuel Theotocopuli, El Greco's son, lent a series of small Apostles to the Hospital of Saint John the Baptist Extra Muros in Toledo. These were sold after Jorge Manuel's death by his heirs to Andrés Martínez Calvo, the priest at the Hospital (A. Rodríguez y Rodríguez, El Hospital de San Juan Bautista Extramuros de Toledo, 1921, pp. 29-31). They cannot be surely identified today. Nine paintings from an additional group were discovered in an abandoned parish church in the small village of Almadrones in 1936 and these too have since been dispersed, four being acquired by the Prado in 1946 and the others being sold (three are now on permanent loan to the Indianapolis Art Museum, the fourth is in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art).
The present painting once belonged to the great Spanish collector of the 19th century, the Conde de Adanero. Adanero, whose eye for quality was legendary, also owned the prime version of El Greco's Saint Francis in Meditation, now in the Torelló collection, Barcelona (Wethey, ibid, no. 223) and a second version of this subject, sold at Christie's, London, 13 December 1996, lot 129. After his death, Adanero's heirs became notorious for their refusal to show their collection to the public. At the end of the 19th century, the two scholars who had been permitted to see the present Saint Paul during Adanero's lifetime, Manuel Cossío and Salvator Viniegra, both believed it to be autograph. In addition, Cossío's detailed description of this work in which he notes some old overpaint on the head of Saint Paul, his sword and the paper held by the saint, lends valuable information about the history of the painting's conservation. It is unlikely that any subsequent scholars of El Greco would have seen this work while it was still in the Adanero collection. The 20th century scholar José Camon Aznar like his predecessors, accepted this painting as by El Greco, but Harold Wethey, one of a number of later scholars refused access to the painting, was unable to draw any sure conclusion from the poor photographic images that were available. His opinion would have been further hampered by the old discolored varnish and by the overpaint mentioned by Cossío which would have obscured some of the natural vivacity of the brushstrokes. Wethey complained of this in his monograph (Wethey, ibid, under nos. 242, and X-426, the entry for the present work), noting that 'the paper which he [Saint Paul] holds may be blank. The picture cannot be studied, since the present owner allows no one to see his collection.'
With the removal of the old varnish and overpaint, this painting has been reinstated as an important autograph version of a composition which El Greco himself repeated several times. The high quality of the execution is now clearly in evidence and the thick impasto and wide brushstrokes, so typical of El Greco's late period, are fully apparent, as is the psychological intensity of the Saint's expression and gestures. These are transmitted through his elongated hands and distorted, angular facial lines which bear a stark contrast to the rhythmic undulating lines of his robes. El Greco uses colors of a slightly lighter and more transluscent nature than those of the Saint Paul in the Saint Louis Art Museum, but both have the same richness and depth of range and in both paintings the glazes are largely intact. The inscription, now fully visible on the letter, is taken from the dedicatory letter of Saint Paul of Tito, first Bishop of Crete and translates as 'For Titus, ordained the first bishop of the church of crete'. Invisible to Wethey, it echoes the inscription on the letter held by Saint Paul in the collection of the Marqués de San Felix, Oviedo. Both his choice of the greek inscription and his own interest in Saint Paul lend a particularly personal feel to this sensitive depiction, perhaps alluding to his homeland.
In the catalogue of the exhibition El Greco conocido y redescubierto (op. cit., p. 51), Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez compares the present work to the Oviedo Saint Paul, and to the Almadrone Apostles bought by the Prado in 1946; he places it in importance alongside the Toledo Apostolados.
In addition to the images of Saint Paul in the Apostolado series in Toledo, Wethey (op. cit., pp. 102-3) notes that there were probably additional series of Apostles which have since been scattered among various collections around the world. In fact, literary references in the 17th century confirm that El Greco executed additional Apostolodos while in Toledo. In 1622-3 Jorge Manuel Theotocopuli, El Greco's son, lent a series of small Apostles to the Hospital of Saint John the Baptist Extra Muros in Toledo. These were sold after Jorge Manuel's death by his heirs to Andrés Martínez Calvo, the priest at the Hospital (A. Rodríguez y Rodríguez, El Hospital de San Juan Bautista Extramuros de Toledo, 1921, pp. 29-31). They cannot be surely identified today. Nine paintings from an additional group were discovered in an abandoned parish church in the small village of Almadrones in 1936 and these too have since been dispersed, four being acquired by the Prado in 1946 and the others being sold (three are now on permanent loan to the Indianapolis Art Museum, the fourth is in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art).
The present painting once belonged to the great Spanish collector of the 19th century, the Conde de Adanero. Adanero, whose eye for quality was legendary, also owned the prime version of El Greco's Saint Francis in Meditation, now in the Torelló collection, Barcelona (Wethey, ibid, no. 223) and a second version of this subject, sold at Christie's, London, 13 December 1996, lot 129. After his death, Adanero's heirs became notorious for their refusal to show their collection to the public. At the end of the 19th century, the two scholars who had been permitted to see the present Saint Paul during Adanero's lifetime, Manuel Cossío and Salvator Viniegra, both believed it to be autograph. In addition, Cossío's detailed description of this work in which he notes some old overpaint on the head of Saint Paul, his sword and the paper held by the saint, lends valuable information about the history of the painting's conservation. It is unlikely that any subsequent scholars of El Greco would have seen this work while it was still in the Adanero collection. The 20th century scholar José Camon Aznar like his predecessors, accepted this painting as by El Greco, but Harold Wethey, one of a number of later scholars refused access to the painting, was unable to draw any sure conclusion from the poor photographic images that were available. His opinion would have been further hampered by the old discolored varnish and by the overpaint mentioned by Cossío which would have obscured some of the natural vivacity of the brushstrokes. Wethey complained of this in his monograph (Wethey, ibid, under nos. 242, and X-426, the entry for the present work), noting that 'the paper which he [Saint Paul] holds may be blank. The picture cannot be studied, since the present owner allows no one to see his collection.'
With the removal of the old varnish and overpaint, this painting has been reinstated as an important autograph version of a composition which El Greco himself repeated several times. The high quality of the execution is now clearly in evidence and the thick impasto and wide brushstrokes, so typical of El Greco's late period, are fully apparent, as is the psychological intensity of the Saint's expression and gestures. These are transmitted through his elongated hands and distorted, angular facial lines which bear a stark contrast to the rhythmic undulating lines of his robes. El Greco uses colors of a slightly lighter and more transluscent nature than those of the Saint Paul in the Saint Louis Art Museum, but both have the same richness and depth of range and in both paintings the glazes are largely intact. The inscription, now fully visible on the letter, is taken from the dedicatory letter of Saint Paul of Tito, first Bishop of Crete and translates as 'For Titus, ordained the first bishop of the church of crete'. Invisible to Wethey, it echoes the inscription on the letter held by Saint Paul in the collection of the Marqués de San Felix, Oviedo. Both his choice of the greek inscription and his own interest in Saint Paul lend a particularly personal feel to this sensitive depiction, perhaps alluding to his homeland.
In the catalogue of the exhibition El Greco conocido y redescubierto (op. cit., p. 51), Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez compares the present work to the Oviedo Saint Paul, and to the Almadrone Apostles bought by the Prado in 1946; he places it in importance alongside the Toledo Apostolados.