03 — ARTWORK
St Luke
- MEDIUM
- Oil on canvas, 98 x 72 cm
- TYPE
- Religious
PALETTE
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- FILE
- 900 × 1116 px · JPEG
COMMENTARY
UNDERLINED TERMS ARE DEFINED IN THE GLOSSARY.
The series of apostles (apostolados) enabled a direct emotional appeal to Catholic believers. El Greco portrayed the apostles with a powerfully expressive body language. This St Luke is from a cycle for the Toledo CathedralThe principal church of a province or diocese, where the throne of the bishop is placed. For reasons lost to time and tradition, a cathedral always faces west - toward the setting sun. The altar is placed at the east end. The main body, or nave, of the cathedral is usually divided into one main and two side aisles. These lead up to the north and south transepts, or arms of the cross, the shape in which a cathedral is usually formed..
El Greco included St Luke in several of his apostolados, although Luke was not actually one of the twelve apostles. Here the artist provided the Western version of a subject he <A onclick="return OpenOther('/html/g/greco_el/01/0102grec.html')" HREF="/html/g/greco_el/01/0102grec.html">depicted in quite different terms</A> during his period as an icona small, portable painting in the Orthodox Church. The form and colours are strictly idealized and unnatural. The cultic worship of icons was a result of traditionally prescribed patterns of representation in terms of theme and form, for it was believed that icons depicted the original appearances of Christ, Mary and the saints. painter.
CITE THIS RECORD — BIBTEX
@online{wga-rcf0cccf253bc3e,
author = {Krén, Emil and Marx, Daniel},
title = {St Luke by GRECO, El},
organization = {{Web Gallery of Art}},
date = {2026-09-09},
url = {https://beta.wga.hu/artists/greco-el-r8ef3afacca162f/st-luke-rcf0cccf253bc3e},
urldate = {2026-09-09},
langid = {english}
}ACCESSED 2026-09-09. REPLACE THE AUTHOR FIELD WITH THE COMMENTARY AUTHOR WHERE ONE IS NAMED.
