The Opening of the Fifth Seal of the Apocalypse by El Greco

This monumental and visionary painting represents one of the most daring and expressive creations of early European Baroque art. Temporarily known under the name “The Opening of the Fifth Seal of the Apocalypse”, this work spectacularly illustrates the final evolution of El Greco’s style, marked by an expressive distortion of bodies. Through this scene of apocalypse and divine revelation, the artist explores the concepts of spiritual liberation and anxious expectation, breaking classical conventions to deliver an image of an unparalleled psychological strength.

On the left side of the composition, a monumental male figure dressed in a long blue-grey robe stands, arms stretched towards the sky in a gesture of invocation or sacred ecstasy. His elongated body seems to vibrate under the effect of an invisible force. In the middle ground, a group of entirely naked figures, men and women with long and sinuous silhouettes, moves frantically in front of large yellow and green draperies. In the upper right part, small flying cherubs distribute these fabrics in the middle of a sky tormented by dark and whitish clouds. The dark ground accentuates the spectral paleness of the stripped bodies rushing towards the celestial light.

Technical virtuosity bursts forth in this total freedom of the brush and this anatomical audacity which prefigures modern art. The painter uses thick and nervous strokes to model the muscles and make the shimmering fabrics vibrate under an unreal light. It is an absolute summit of his innovative craftsmanship.