The Fable (El Greco)
The Fable (Spanish - La Fábula) is a 1580 allegorical painting by El Greco, produced early in his Toledan period and now in the Museo del Prado in Madrid.[1]
| The Fable | |
|---|---|
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| Artist | El Greco |
| Year | 1580 |
| Medium | oil on canvas |
| Location | Prado, Madrid |
The light effects and use of colour show the influence of Jacopo Bassano, which the painter had picked up in Italy. It shows a monkey and a rogue flanking a boy blowing on an ember or taper. The central figure was a frequent theme for the artist (he had painted it a few years earlier as El Soplón for example), drawn from a story in Pliny the Elder's Naturalis Historia.
The painting is probably a moralising warning about the consequences of lust, the ember bursting into flame symbolising sexual arousal, and the monkey and the buffoon the ever-present twin dangers of vice and folly.[2]
Bibliography (in Spanish)
- ÁLVAREZ LOPERA, José, El Greco, Madrid, Arlanza, 2005, Biblioteca «Descubrir el Arte», (colección «Grandes maestros»). ISBN 84-9550-344-1.
- SCHOLZ-HÄNSEL, Michael, El Greco, Colonia, Taschen, 2003. ISBN 978-3-8228-3173-1.
- https://web.archive.org/web/20100919104629/http://www.artehistoria.jcyl.es/genios/cuadros/824.htm
- http://www.museodelprado.es/coleccion/galeria-on-line/galeria-on-line/obra/fabula/
References
- "Fable". Prado Museum. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
- "An Allegory (Fabula)". National Galleries Scotland. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
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