El Greco's "Dream of Philip II": An Allegory of the Holy LeagueAuthor(s): Anthony BluntReviewed work(s):Source: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 3, No. 1/2 (Oct., 1939 - Jan.,1940), pp. 58-69Published by: The Warburg InstituteStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/750192 .Accessed: 28/09/2012 08:22

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EL GRECO'S " DREAM OF PHILIP II" AN ALLEGORY OF THE HOLY LEAGUE

By Anthony Blunt

It has long been realized that the title "The Dream of Philip II" now usually given to El Greco's painting in the Chapter House of the

Escorial (P1. 9) is inadequate to explain all the details of this elaborate composition. Most recent writers' on the picture return to the name given in the earliest surviving account of the picture, in Los Santos' Descripcidn Breve del Monasterio de S. Lorenzo el Real del Escorial, published in 1657, where it is described as "the Adoration of the Holy Name of Jesus.'"2 But even this description does not fully explain the figures in the foreground, nor the curious episodes happening in various parts of the background.3

Some years ago, however, the late General Stirling, the owner of the small version of the composition at Keir, suggested that the picture was essentially an allegory of the Holy League, formed by the papacy, Venice and Spain against the Turk in 1571.4 It is the primary object of this article to work out this hypothesis, and to give it a solid foundation by a comparison with other representations of allied subjects, and an analysis of the connexion between the theological and the historical themes in the painting.

Let us take first the theological side. The Adoration of the Holy Name of Jesus is an old tradition in the Christian church; but it gained particular prominence in the I5th century through St. Bernardino of Siena, who used to hold up a tablet with the monogram IHS while he was preaching.5 The Confraternity of the Most Holy Name of God and of Jesus was founded as a part of the Dominican order and flourished in the I6th century, when it was encouraged by Pius IV and Pius V.6 The Name of Jesus was naturally one of the central objects of worship among the Jesuits, since their order was in a sense dedicated to it.' It was also held in great esteem in Spain, where the theologian Luis de Granada devoted to it his sermons and meditations on the feast of the Circumcision, the day on which Christ received the name of Jesus."

1 E.g. Mayer, El Greco, 1926, p. 62 f.; Kehrer, in Kunst und Kiinstler, XXI, p. 349 f.

2 Another version of the painting existed in the Lazaro collection, Madrid, in which the monogram of the name of Jesus was replaced by a group with the Holy Trinity and the Coronation of the Virgin. Cf. Mayer, op. cit., p. 23.

3 Other explanations have been put for- ward to explain these details, but none of them is wholly satisfactory. Mayer describes it as a combination of the worship of the name of Jesus with a representation of All Saints (cf. Dtirer's painting in Vienna) and a Last Judgment. Op. cit., p. 21. Byron and Talbot-Rice in The Birth of Western Painting, 193o, note on plate 73, also support

the Last Judgment theory. Kehrer, op. cit., suggests that it is an allegory of the Inquisition.

4 I am very grateful to Mrs. Stirling and to Mr. Waterhouse for allowing me to see the correspondance of the General Stirling with the latter on this question.

5 Cf. Catholic Encyclopaedia, II, p. 505- 6 Cf. Beringer, Die Ablisse, II, 1922, p. 77;

and Colvenerius, Liturgia Mariana, in Bou- rass6, Summa Aurea, III, p. 686 ff.

' Cf. Bollandus, Imago primi saeculi, passim; Male, L'art religieux apris le Concile de Trente,

I932, p. 431 ff.; Knipping, De Iconografie van de Contra-Reformatie in de Nederlanden, I, 1939, p. I48 f.

S Later in the I6th century another

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EL GRECO'S "DREAM OF PHILIP II" 59

The essential text, on which the worship of the Name of Jesus was based, is from the Epistle to the Philippians (II, 9f) :

Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name : That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in Heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth.

To see how this applies to El Greco's painting we need only quote the description by Los Santos; who says that the picture is called El Greco's 'Gloria' "from a glimpse of the saints in glory in the upper part; while one half of the lower part exhibits purgatory and hell, and the other the church militant and the faithful praying with hands lifted up towards heaven, among whom is distinguished Philip II. In the centre of this piece is the name of JESUS, with angels worshipping it; the members of the church militant follow their example, and even those wretched crowds, who people purgatory and hell, are in the same reverential posture, agreeably to the truth expressed by St. Paul : That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow."'

The four parts are easily distinguished: the church triumphant with the saints above; the church militant below on the left; hell below on the right; purgatory in a sort of cave in the background. But in the case of all except the heavenly realm El Greco's representation shows certain pecularities which deserve analysis.

To depict Hell the artist has fallen back on the common mediaeval conception of the fish-like monster with gaping mouth which was common in the gothic painting of the north, in mediaeval mysteries, and in Byzantine painting,2 and which El Greco had himself already used in the Modena triptych.3 It is, however, to be noted that he has followed exactly the text in the Revelation (XIX, 2o), where it is said that the beast was cast "into a lake of fire burning with brimstone," which can be seen in the painting as a flaming area between the beast and the cave of purgatory.

The sources of El Greco's version of Purgatory are more complex and more curious. He depicts a cave in which, against a background of flames, figures are seen hanging from gallows.4 The cave is preceded by a sort of vestibule surrounded by arches, and this in its turn is approached by a

Spanish theologian, Domingo de Soto, a member of the Confraternity of the Most Holy Name of God and of Jesus, wrote a treatise entitled De cavendo Iuramentorum abusu, ad laudem divini nominis institutio (Salamanca, 1551), though here the name principally considered is that of God not that of Jesus.

1 Los Santos, A Description of the Royal Palace . . . called the Escurial, translated by G. Thompson, I760, p. 48.

2 The assumption of Byron and Talbot- Rice (loc. cit.) that this feature must derive from Byzantine sources is therefore un- justifiable.

3 Cf. Goldscheider, El Greco, (Phaidon), 1938, p. I8. Lafond, Hieronymus Bosch, 19I4, p. 63, points out the connexion with works of Bosch in Spain.

4 For the cave, cf. Bellarmin (De Loco Purgatorii, Opera Omnia, I872, II, p. 395) who, following the scholastics, places purga- tory "intra viscera terrae, inferno ipsi vicinum." For the fire, cf. ibid., p. 402, and The Catechism of the Council of Trent, ch. 6, qu. 2. The Council of Trent had emphatic- ally reasserted the importance of the doctrine of purgatory.

60 ANTHONY BLUNT

bridge, on which stand groups of figures.' On the bridge are two men on white horses who, with others on foot, appear to throw down certain figures into the pit.

There is no immediate source for this kind of representation in the art or theological literature of the Renaissance,2 and to find something similar we have to turn to the Middle Ages. Here we can trace a long tradition concerning a bridge over which the souls of the dead have to pass on the way to the other world.3 The legend takes various forms, but the essential point in all the versions of it is that the bridge is suspended over a flaming pit and that, whereas the souls of the righteous pass over it in safety, those of the wicked fall into the pit. In some cases the bridge becomes suddenly narrow and slippery for the wicked so that they fall off into the pit; in others they are dragged down by the devils who surround the bridge; but in one form or another the story of the bridge can be traced through the whole of the Middle Ages-in the early apocryphical writings like the Apocalypse of St. Paul, in visions recorded by Bede, Gregory the Great, and Gregory of Tours, in traditions like that of the Purgatory of St. Patrick, and in the visions of Thurcill recorded by Matthew Paris.4 Perhaps it is in the Vision of Tundal that we find the closest comparison for Greco's version. For here there is not only a bridge leading to a mountain, but there are men standing on it who hurl down the sinners into the abyss.5

It remains, however, to show that El Greco could have known these various legends, all of which date from a much earlier period. For this the evidence is twofold. First, there is an argument from the literary side. These ideas were certainly current in Spain at any rate shortly after El Greco's time, for they were used by Calderon in his play, El Purgatorio de San Patricio, published in 1635. Calderon's immediate source for this seems to have been a new version of the story of St. Patrick's purgatory, published in Spain in 1627 by Juan Perez de Montalvan,6 which contains many of the elements used by El Greco. But Calderon appears also to have known

1 The fact that this is a bridge and not merely the edge of the pit is made clear by the burst of flame behind the figures which is continued below and above the path on which they stand.

2 El Greco's version has little that can derive from Dante; and the usual treatments of the subject in the Italian Renaissance (Mantegna, Tintoretto) have nothing in common with it.

3 Cf. Landau, Hdlle und Fegfeuer, I9o9, ch. 4, particularly pp. 60-63. For a general account of the various legends about hell, cf. also Kroll, Gott und Holle, Studien der Bibliothek Warburg, I932.

4 In only one legend (vision of Alberic, cf. Delepierre, L'Enfer, 1876, p. 57) does the bridge actually lead to purgatory. But the distinction between hell and purgatory

is not very strict in these legends, cf. a passage in the Dialogue of Miracles of Caesarius Heisterbachensis, in which the novice, who is puzzled about a prayer for the release of souls from the torments of hell, is satisfied with the explanation : "The power of hell or the pit of the lake or the mouth of the lion is understood as the bitterness of purgatory." (tr. Scott and Bland, 1929, Bk. XII, ch.

24). 5 Cf. La Vision de Tondale, ed. Delepierre,

1837, pp. II, I6. The only difference is that with Tundal the bridge runs between a sulphur fire on one side and a sea of ice on the other, whereas in El Greco it is entirely surrounded by flame.

6 Cf. Introduction to the play in D. F. McCarthy's translation, 1853, II, P. 143-

EL GRECO'S "DREAM OF PHILIP II" 6 I

of other legends on the same theme, for at the end of the play he gives a long list of the authors who have treated the subject

Para que con esta acabe La historia, que nos refiere Dionisio, el gran Cartusiano, Con Enrique Saltarense, Cesario, Mateo Rodulfo Domiciano Esturbaquense, Membrosio, Marco Marulo, David Roto, y el prudente Primado de toda Hibernia, Belarmino, Beda, Serpi, Fray Dimas, Jacob Solino, Mensignano, y finalmente La piedad y la opinion Cristiana, que lo defiende.1

We may therefore be certain that these traditions were known in Spain in the early I7th century,2 and they are traceable in pictorial tradition in Spain-though not apparently in Spanish painting-at an earlier date.

It has been shown by Dollmayr and Tolnay3 that the representations of hell and purgatory in the work of Bosch are based on the visions which we have been discussing, especially on that of Tundal. It is also well known that Philip II had a passion for the works of this painter, and that several of them were in the Escorial at a very early date, including the 'Garden of Delights,' and a 'Christ in Limbo' now lost.4 In many of those works of Bosch or of his school we find details closely recalling these in El Greco's painting. The bridge over the flaming pit, and the scenes of hanging appear in various pictures by the master himself.5 But the most exact comparison for the 'Dream' is perhaps a painting by an imitator (now in the Prado), based on a wing of Bosch's 'Garden of Delights' in the Escorial (P1. Iod), and bearing the inscription: "Visio Tondaly." Here the bridge, which

1 Ibid., p. 258. 2 The same tradition seems to be echoed in

the Sueiios of Quevedo. Cf. infra note 4. 3 Dollmayr, "Hieronymus Bosch und die

Darstellung der vier letzten Dinge," Jahr- buch der Kunstsammlungen des Ah. Kaiserhauses, XIX, 1898, p. 284 ff. Tolnay, Hieronymus Bosch, 1937, p. 26, and passim. I am indebted to Dr. Otto Benesch for help in following up the mediaeval visions.

4 Cf. Tolnay, op. cit., p. 120o. Martinez tells us that Bosch was imitated by an unnamed painter in Toledo (ibid., p. 81), and suggests that Quevedo was also influenc- ed by him. For the most detailed account of the works of Bosch in the Escurial cf. Ilario Mazzolari, Le Reali Grandezze dell'Escu- riale di Spagna, Bologna, I650. The author who was clearly deeply impressed with Bosch analyses in some detail his use of allegory and fable.

5 For hangings cf. Revelation of Esdras, Ante-Nicene Christian Library, xvi, p. 472ff. In Bosch they can be seen in various paint- ings, sometimes with the addition of lad- ders which also occur in the 'Dream', cf. Tolnay, op. cit., pls. 7, 33, 63-

For the bridge, cf. ibid., pls. 56, 74. In plate 74 there are even horsemen, a feature also to be found in El Greco. The same points occur in many works by imitators, cf. Lafond, op. cit., pls. 38, 40, 58; and a picture by a follower in the museum in Mexico, in which Christ is depicted crossing a bridge in his descent into Limbo. This seems to be the only case in which the bridge leads to purgatory instead of hell. (Rep. in Universidad, I937, IV). The hanging motive can also be found in Italian art in Giotto's 'Last Judgment' in the Arena chapel.

62 ANTHONY BLUNT

is not in the original of Bosch, is conspicuously clear, with the devils trying to hurl into the pit the souls that cross it.

These mediaeval legends about the bridge of hell are echoed in another composition, where they approach even more closely the form which they take on in the 'Dream'. In the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, the celebrated romance attributed to the monk Francesco Colonna, and printed by Aldus in Venice in 1499, there is a description of the bridge of hell which follows in many ways Tundal's account. The bridge runs between a flaming and an icy sea, into one of which fall those who cannot get across. Colonna elaborates the story greatly, and adds details borrowed from classical antiquity-perhaps through Dante-such as Cerberus and the three fates, thus producing a typical mixture of mediaeval and pagan elements. In the illustration to this passage, however, the likeness to El Greco is more striking-particularly in the woodcut to the French translation of 1546.1 Here we see not only the bridge leading to a cave very like El Greco's cave of Purgatory, but also the crowds of figures on it and those falling off into the pit (all of which are absent in the woodcut of the Italian edition). (P1. Iob).2

Whether or not El Greco actually knew this woodcut, it seems fairly safe to propose that he based his version of purgatory on the various mediaeval legends of the type of Tundal's Vision, and that he knew them partly through theological tradition and partly through the paintings of the Bosch school, with which his little figures standing out against a flaming background have also much in common stylistically.

The third part of the painting, the Church militant, presents other problems. The faithful form a compact mass which stretches into the distance and across which falls a shadow. This shadow serves to throw the foreground group into greater prominence, but it no doubt also has a symbolical meaning-probably as 'the Shadow of the Almighty,' under which the righteous dwell.3

But the most interesting feature is the group in the foreground. Here we see a Pope kneeling at the head of the faithful and facing the spectator; to the right Philip II appears in profile, easily recognisable from his portraits; and to his left kneels another figure who, from his golden robe with an ermine hood, can be identified as the Doge of Venice.4

1 Cf. reprint of 1926, p. 163. 2 Fol. qii. An even more curious recur-

rence of this theme is to be found in one of the panels by Antonio Zucchi on the ceiling of the Library in Home House, Portman Square (now the Courtauld Institute).

In the foreground stand two classically dressed figures, one of whom points out to the other the scene in the background. This shows a bridge across which streams a crowd of people, driven along by men with scourges, while over them hover flights of creatures with wings and serpent tails. Many

of the figures fall from the bridge into the water, and few seem to pass over safely. The exact subject of this panel and of the series of which it forms part has not yet been identified.

3 Psalm 91, v. I. It is sometimes referred to as "the shadow of thy wings." Cf. Psalm 36, v. 7, etc. It is also possible that this shadow should be the shadow of death under which man lives, cf. Psalm 44, v. 19.

4 Cf. various paintings in the Ducal palace in Venice, in Serra, Palazzo Ducale di Venezia,

EL GRECO'S "DREAM OF PHILIP II" 63

With this group we reach the historical significance of the painting, for this configuration of a Pope between Philip and the Doge can only refer to the Holy League. The figures are clearly portraits, and it is therefore likely that the painting refers to some actual event and not merely to an abstract theological doctrine. But the Holy League was the only incident in the reign of Philip II in which Spain was in alliance with Venice and the papacy. It is true that the painting cannot have been carried out till some time after the League was formed, and even after its greatest achievement, the victory of Lepanto (I57i), for El Greco probably did not reach Spain till about 1575. But the League was in theory a perpetual institution, and we know that Philip was still having paintings executed in its honour at a much later date.1

The victory of Lepanto was considered of such importance for the whole of Europe-although its actual effects were much less far-reaching than was imagined at the time-that all those concerned in it celebrated their achievement in writing, painting, sculpture, and even architecture. Pius V had several medals made to commemorate the battle and he added vignettes of it to his engraved portraits.2 It provides the theme of two reliefs on his tomb in the Cappella Sistina in S. Maria Maggiore; and he ordered three frescoes recording the event to be included in the cycle of temporal triumphs of the papacy in the Sala Regia of the Vatican.3 In Venice the list of monuments recording the victory is too great to be more than indicated. There are various paintings in the Ducal Palace;4 the Doge Lodovico Mocenigo caused a medal to be struck; the entrance gate to the Arsenal was reconstructed in honour of St. Justine, on whose day the battle was fought; and the Cappella del Rosario in SS. Giovanni e Paolo was redecorated as a shrine in memory of the victory. The various generals were everywhere received with triumphs, accounts of which were written in many languages,5 and statues were set up to them. The Colonna family were so proud of their ancestor, Marcantonio Colonna, who commanded

pp. 70, 74, 75, etc. For a discussion of the doge's robes, cf. Molmenti, La Storia di Venezia nella vita privata, 1906, II, p. 433 and pl., p. 34 and Vecellio, De gli Habiti antichi e moderni, 1590, p. 78. Most writers have taken this figure to be an emperor. Cf. Kehrer, op. cit., p. 349 and Mayer, op. cit., p. 63. But the robes are not those of the emperor, who never wears an ermine tippet.

1 E.g. by Cambiaso in 1583-1585. Cf. Zarco Cuevas, Pintores Italianos en San Lorenzo el Real de el Escorial, 1932, p. II.

2 Cf. Milford-Haven, Naval Medals, II, 1928, p. 63 ff.; and Chacon, Vitae et Res Gestae Pontificum Romanorum, 1677, IV, col. 1017. It is also alluded to in the central panel of the ceiling decorations in the chapel of Pius V in the Vatican.

3 They were to represent : I. Pius giving the standard to Don John. II. The review

before the battle of Lepanto. III. The battle itself. The first was apparently never executed; for the others Vasari had the help of Sabbatini, cf. Vasari, Opere, ed. Milanesi, VII, 1906, p. 717.

4 Veronese, 'Sebastiano Venier presented to the Virgin by St. Justine.' Andrea Vicentino, 'The Battle of Lepanto.' Antonio Vassilacchi, 'Death of Barbarigo' (destroyed).

In the Academy in Venice is another small canvas by Veronese, perhaps a sketch submitted in a competition for paintings in celebration of the victory. It shows the battle below, and above Venice presented to the Virgin Mary by four saints. Peter, the patron saint of the papacy, James for Spain, Mark for Venice, and Justine on whose day the battle was fought. On the right an angel hurls down arrows on the Turkish fleet.

5 Cf. Stirling-Maxwell, Don John of Austria, 1883, I, p. 443 ff-, II, p. 478 ff.

64 ANTHONY BLUNT

the papal fleet, that, when they came to fresco the Salone in their Roman palace at the end of the I7th century, they chose the battle of Lepanto as the principal theme.

Philip himself also ordered works to commemorate the battle; and two paintings by Titian, now in the Prado, allude to it.1 Cambiaso executed a cycle of paintings on the subject for the Escorial, where the standard captured from the Turks was preserved.2

There is therefore nothing improbable in the idea that Philip should have commissioned a painting in celebration of the Holy League from El Greco. Moreover, the picture has much in common with other works produced on the same occasion.

The particular function of the Pope in the formation of the Holy League was overcoming the old dislike which existed between Spain and Venice. He appears in all accounts as the mediator, without whose skill agreement would have been impossible. This idea is clearly expressed in a woodcut in the Cronica del muy alto y poderoso Principe Don Juan de Austria, by the Spaniard Hieronymo de Costiol, published in Barcelona in 1572, in which the Pope is shown seated between the King and the Doge-a group exactly corresponding in idea with El Greco's. The mediation of the Pope is expressed in more abstract terms in the fresco of the 'Review before Lepanto,' executed by Vasari and Sabbatini in the Sala Regia of the Vatican (P1. Ioc), where the figures personifying the papacy, Venice and Spain appear in the same configuration, though here the papacy, in the middle, actually puts her arms round the shoulders of the other two figures, drawing them together, while they join hands-a more explicit rendering of the act on mediation.3

Of the three principal figures in the foreground of El Greco's painting, that of Philip is beyond doubt a portrait. The figure of the Pope resembles the aged Pius V closely enough, although it is less particularized. The Doge is presumably Lodovico Mocenigo, who held that position at the time

1 'Religion succoured by Spain,' and 'Philip II presenting his son Ferdinand to God.' Cf. Wittkower's note, p. 138.

2 Forneron, Histoire de Philippe II, I881, II, p. 205.

3 This group appears exactly on a medal of Pius V, cf. Milford-Haven, op. cit., II, no. 124a. The figure of Venice in the fresco wears exactly the same robes as the Doge in El Greco's painting. The fresco shows in the background the review in progress, and in front in the middle is a map of the gulf of Lepanto. To the right are allegorical figures representing the forces of evil fleeing at the sight of the Holy League : death, weakness, and fear. Cf. Gaye, Carteggio inedito, III, p. 307 f. According to Vasari's scheme the fresco of the presentation of the standard was to include figures of Philip II and of the Doge, as well as of various

cardinals, and it would in this way have come close to the 'Dream' (cf. Gaye, ibid.). The same subject appears more simply on Pius' tomb. Bartsch (xvi, no. 89) describes an engraving by Martin Rota with exactly the same configuration; but I have not been able to see a copy of it. Rota also executed several other engravings alluding to Lepanto and the defeat of the Turks. One (B. 107) is an adaptation of the mediaeval Wheel of Fortune; in another (B. I I2) the Christian and Muslem religions are represented by trees; in the third (B. I 13) the lion of Venice is shown pulling the Sultan out of a mouse trap, representing the Gulf of Lepanto; the last (B. I14) depicts the actual battle in allegorical form, with, according to Bartsch, devils carrying off souls and Jupiter hurling his thunderbolts.

EL GRECO'S "DREAM OF PHILIP II" 65

that the Holy League was formed and the battle of Lepanto won. There is at any rate nothing in El Greco's figure to argue against such a view.' But the identification of the other figures in the group is less certain. The Pope is attended by two men wearing cardinal's robes. That on the left bears a resemblance to Cardinal Granvelle, who was the most active of Philip's agents in the negotiations which preceded the formation of the League, as he appears in Titian's portrait at Besangon.2 If this guess is correct, the other cardinal must, almost of necessity, be Francisco de Pacheco, who was the close collaborator of Granvelle in this matter.3 But still more difficult problems are raised by the three figures to the left, of which the most prominent holds a sword.4 Since they kneel on cushions like the king, and form the same circle as the Pope, King and Doge, they seem to represent human beings, though they are so generalized, both in features and in dress, that they might almost be figures of saints associated with the victory or with the leading figures of the League. If they are taken as human beings, it is tempting to suppose that they represent the generals of the three fleets. There would, moreover, be a precedent for this in a lost painting executed by Domenico Tintoretto in honour of the victory and placed in the Cappella del Rosario in SS. Giovanni e Paolo in Venice. It is described in some detail by Ridolfi,5 and showed Christ and the Virgin adored not only by the Pope, the Doge and the King, but also by the three generals-Don John, Marcantonio Colonna, and Sebastiano Venier-while St. Justine hovered above in the air, and in the background a glimpse of the battle was to be caught. But the figures in El Greco's picture cannot be identified with the three generals, for, though their features are not rendered in any detail, none of them can be Venier, who is always represented with a heavy beard. It is, however, not beyond the bounds of possibility that one of them should represent Don John. For, as the natural brother of Philip and the supreme commander of the combined fleets, Don John had a better claim to be included in the Spanish monument to the victory than the other generals. The figures are, however, so vaguely characterized, and the known portraits of Don John vary so markedly that any precise identification is impossible.

The connexion of the victory of the Holy League at Lepanto with the adoration of the Holy Name of Jesus is not surprising. All the parties concerned attributed the success of the fleets to divine intervention. The Venetian medals show St. Mark handing the standard to the Doge,6

1 It is to be noted that by the time the painting was executed the Pope was certainly dead, and probably the Doge also.

2 This identification was first suggested by Mr. Waterhouse.

3 I have not been able to find any portraits of Pacheco, nor the exact date of his birth. He came to Rome in the pontificate of Paul IV, was made a cardinal by Pius IV in 1561, at the same time as Granvelle, and died in 1579. Cf. Cardella, Memorie storiche de' Cardinali, V, I763, p. 47 f. The only

argument against his being the figure in the 'Dream' is that the latter is depicted as much younger than the supposed Granvelle.

4 In the Keir version of the painting the figure on the left looking down and pointing upwards is left out.

5 Le Meraviglie dell' Arte, I648, II, p. 264- 6 E.g. the medal of Lodovico Mocenigo,

Milford-Haven, op. cit., II, p. 25, inscribed : MDLXXI anno magnae navalis victoriae dei gra. contra turcas.

66 ANTHONY BLUNT

while the medal of Pius V bears the inscription : "A domino factum est istud" and another: "Dextera tua Dom. percussit inimicum."l Vasari's and Sabbatini's fresco of the battle in the Sala Regia of the Vatican shows Christ, accompanied by Sts. Peter, Paul, James and Mark, hurling thunder- bolts at the Turkish navy.2 Now all the writers who sing the praises of the Name of Jesus agree in attributing to it a particular power in crushing the forces of evil. Suarez and others play with the derivation of the name from the Hebrew word for Saviour,3 basing their exposition on the text in St. Matthew (I, 21) : "Thou shalt call his name Jesus : for he shall save his people from their sins." In the early 16th century Luis de Granada speaks repeatedly of the power of the name of Jesus over the devil, death and hell.4 The Imago Primi Saeculi of the Jesuits is full of the same theme;5 and the Jesuit Richeome, in his Pilerin de Lorete, published in 1604, describes the Name of Jesus with the epithets (among many others) of "plus fort que les armies," "la terreur des Enfers," and "l'esperance et le salut des humains."6 The same conception finds on at least one occasion, though at a later date, splendid expression in painting, namely in Baciccio's fresco on the vault of the Gesii in Rome, in which the forces of evil are driven out of the realm of light, and out of the very picture frame, by the light streaming from the monogram IHS.7

But we can even find more exact connections between the worship of the name of Jesus and the conquest of the infidel. A Flemish engraving of the late I6th century, published by Pieter Balten (P1. Ioa), shows a Pope and an Emperor, accompanied by the saints, adoring the Infant Saviour above whom appears the monogram IHS, and round whom stands the heavenly host.8 Below are written the various texts in which the glory of the Name of Jesus is sung-not only the passage from Philippians which has already been quoted, but also others from various books of the New Testament.9 On either side of these texts is a vignette, depicting the damned in hell praising the name of Jesus in spite of their torments.

1 Milford-Haven, op. cit., p. 63 f. 2 Cf. Gaye, op. cit., III, p. 308. 3 Opera Omnia, I856-6i, XIX, p. 257. 4 (Euvres (French translation), 1862, I,

p. 290; XIII, p. 267; XVII, p. 260; etc. Cf. also St. Bernard in his sermon on the Holy Name : "Considera nomen Jesu tantae esse virtutis, potentiae et efficaciae, quod eo audito daemones contremiscant et fugiant." Quoted by Colvenerius, op. cit., p. 69I.

5 Antwerp, I640o. Cf. particularly p. 159 ff. 6 I6o7, p. 345. ' Molanus, De Historia SS. imaginum et

picturarum, I619, (bk. III, ch. I) justifies the representation of the Holy Name in a circle of rays.

8 This design goes back in type to Dtirer's 'All Saints' in Vienna. A similar scheme appears in an engraving by the Master AC, in which Leo X and Charles V, attended

by groups of priests and princes, adore the Madonna and child. A Spanish woodcut repeats the idea (cf. Luis de Granada Tractado de Oracidn mental, Saragossa, 1563, p. XLVII, verso), though here the Pope and Emperor are types not individuals. Gior- dano's fresco on the vault of the great staircase of the Escorial is a baroque example of the same conception, but here the ecclesiastical element is missing.

9 The other quotations are as follows. "Non enim aliud nomen est sub coelo datum hominibus in quo oporteat nos salvas fieri." (Acts, IV, I2). "Adorabunt eum omnes reges terrae, omnes gentes servient ei." (Psalm 71 v), "Non nobis, Domine, non nobis sed nomini tuo da gloria." (Psalm I 15, v. I). "Omne quodcunque facitis in verbo aut in opere, omnia in nomine Domini nostri Iesu Christi facite: gratias agientes Deo et Patri per ipsum." (Col. III, I7).

10

b-Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. French c-Vasari and Sabbatini, Review ed. 1546. The Bridge of Hell before Lepanto. Detail. Vatican, (p. 62) Sala Regia (p. 64)

a--Pieter Balten, Adoration of the Name of Jesus. Engraving, d-H. Bosch School, "Vision of Tundal." Detail. Prado End I6th cent. (p. 66) (p. 61)

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EL GRECO'S "DREAM OF PHILIP II" 67

But the most singular detail in the engraving is that on the sole of the Emperor's foot there appears a crescent. Now this can only be interpreted as a symbol for the treading under foot of Islam, of which the crescent was the recognized sign. There do not seem to be other cases of exactly this method of representation; but it is in a sense only a more compact version of the common motive of a Christian conqueror standing on the head of a vanquished Turk, to be seen, for instance, in the statue erected to Don John at Messina.'

In this engraving, therefore, we have an instance of the direct connection of the Name of Jesus with victory over the Turks.2 Moreover, this connection is corroborated by an engraved portrait of Sebastiano Venier. In the ornamental border there are at the bottom vanquished Turks, and at the top is the legend : "Non nobis non nobis," which if completed would read : "Non nobis Domine, non nobis : sed nomini tuo da gloriam," a text from Psalm I15 (v. I) regularly quoted in connection with the adoration of the Holy Name of Jesus,3 and inscribed on the Flemish engraving just mentioned.4 Yet another connection should perhaps not be omitted. From the middle of the I6th century onwards the monogram IHS was used by the Jesuits with the addition of a cross above it and of the three nails of the crucifixion below it.5 The three nails were later read as a V and the resulting monogram IHSV was interpreted as : "In hoc signo vinces." Now this was the motto inscribed on the banner of the Holy League which Pius V himself handed to Don John,6 so that once more we are brought back to the Holy Name of Jesus in connection with the victory of Lepanto and the achievements of the League.7

Apart from the various points of detail which have been left in doubt, one main problem still presents itself in connection with the painting. For what purpose or on what occasion was it painted? We have already seen that it cannot have been carried out till some time after the victory of Lepanto, but can we find any event for which Philip would be likely to order such a work, and which would agree in date with the position of the picture in El Greco's development?

The picture is not dated, but on stylistic grounds it can be placed with

1 Cf. engraving of Custos, in which he stands on the turban only, without the head.

2 The Pope and Emperor are here much generalized, but the latter, with his long beard, recalls the traditional type for Frederick Barbarossa who, as the great crusading emperor, might well be chosen in an allegory for victory over the Muslems. Such an allusion to the Crusades would be in keeping with the revival of mediaeval ideas in much early Counter-Reformation art.

3 E.g. on the engraved title-page to the Imago primi saeculi.

4 In the text on the verso of Custos' engraving of Don John, from Schrenck von Notzing's Augustissimorum Imperatorum Imagines, i6o , there is a reference to the forces at Lepanto fighting "pro Christi nomine."

5 Cf. Knipping, op. cit., p. 148 f. 6 Catholic Encyclopaedia, VII, p. 421. 7 The comparison with the victory of

Constantine was constantly emphasized in the triumph prepared for Colonna when he returned to Rome. Cf. Tassolo, and Mariotti, I Trionfi Feste et Livree . . ., 1571.

68 ANTHONY BLUNT

a tolerable degree of certainty between 1577 and 1580.1 Now Don John died in Flanders in 1578, and in 1579 his body was brought back to Spain to be buried, at his particular request, in the pantheon which Philip was preparing for the Spanish Hapsburgs. It seems, therefore, not impossible that El Greco should have been commissioned to execute a painting to be hung in the chapel where the body of Don John was to be placed. All the features of the picture suit such a destination. It celebrates the greatest achievement of the dead man, and one in which he was particularly associated with the royal house, among the members of which he was to be buried. At the same time its eschatological content makes it entirely suitable as an ornament for a funeral chapel. It shows every fate which can befall man after death, and at the same time holds out to the dead hero the promise of salvation through the Holy Name.

Unfortunately we have no record of where the picture originally hung. Don John was first buried in the old church where the bodies of Charles V and Isabella were laid till a proper pantheon should be ready for their reception. It was transferred with theirs to the vault beneath the high altar of the new church in 1586. Sigiienza, who gives the earliest account of the Escorial (I605), describes the removal of the bodies in great detail,2 and the order in which they were placed in the new vault. But he does not describe the furnishings of the vault.3 The present pantheon was begun by Philip III in 1617 and finished by Philip IV, and at this moment the bodies of the kings and queens were placed in one chamber while a separate one was prepared for those of the Infants, Don John's among them.4 In the middle of the I7th century, according to Los Santos (1657), El Greco's picture was hung in the sacristy of the pantheon.5

It is therefore possible that, if the picture was painted to be hung near the tomb of Don John in the old church, it may have been put away when the bodies were removed in 1586 to the new vault which we know to have been very small." This would explain why Sigiienza does not mention it. When the pantheon was completed in its present form it may have been brought out again and hung in the sacristy attached to it, which is exactly opposite the pantheon of the Infants.

The above analysis of the elements out of which El Greco has built up his composition enables us to define the place of the picture in the artist's development.

It is typical of the extraordinary complexity of influences which were at work on the artist in the first years after his arrival in Spain. Icono-

1 Mayer, op. cit., 21 f., dated it before I580. Goldscheider, op. cit., pl. 49, about 158o. Cossio, El Greco, 19o8, proposes a much later date, 1594-1604, and suggests that the picture may have been intended to hang over the tomb of Philip. But it is quite impossible to fit the 'Dream' in with the known works of El Greco at this period.

2 Historia de la Orden de San Jer6nimo, 1909, II, p. 469 ff.

3 Ilario Mazzolari, however, whose Reali Grandezze dell'Escuriale appeared in Bologna in i65o, describes the vault in some detail but without mentioning the picture.

4 Los Santos, op. cit., II, p. 45 if- 5 Ibid., p. 48. 6 Ibid., p. 5-

EL GRECO'S "DREAM OF PHILIP II" 69

graphically there are, as we have seen, connections with the official Mannerism of the Papacy, as it appeared in the great fresco cycle of the Sala Regia. But certain elements also come from the italianizing Mannerists of Flanders. The elaboration of the allegory, which it has in common with both these sources, is a rarity in El Greco's work, and is to be attributed to the particular nature of the commission. In his later paintings, executed for private or ecclesiastical patrons in Toledo and not for the court, the problems of interpretation are often acute,' but they arise from the bare and stripped allusiveness of the treatment, not from its tortuous complexity as in this case.

But, as has been indicated, El Greco seems to have been affected by far more remote sources than those of Mannerist painting. The strong return to Gothic feeling in the rendering of hell and purgatory is only the counterpart in iconography to those formal borrowings from Diirer which are apparent in the Espolio,2 a work, incidentally, in which the central motive of the stripping of Christ seems to derive from the painting by Bosch in the Escorial.3

Formally speaking also the "Dream" is typical of El Greco's style at the end of the seventies. Ecstatic figures like late Roman Mannerism; stridently contrasting colours from the same source, though combined with a more Venetian fluency of handling; the ring of angels in the celestial choir above, recalling Correggio's dome frescoes4-all these elements, stylistic or iconographical, can be traced in other works of the artist at this time, but in none do they all appear together in such full and deliberate complexity.

But El Greco was never to be a success as a court artist, and, apart from the 'St. Maurice', painted a few years later (1581-84), he was to receive no more commissions from Philip. We do not know why Philip disliked his work, but it is easy to imagine that El Greco's personal mystical manner did not satisfy a king whose religious feelings, like his political, were based on a profound faith in tradition and formalism. Even about the 'Dream' he must have felt in a high degree the objections which he expressed against Cambiaso's first scheme for the 'Glory' over the choir of the church: "The saints of paradise do not have these attitudes nor this freedom, but are arranged hierarchically according to their merit."5

1 E.g. in the so-called 'Opening of the Fifth Seal.'

2 Cf. Antal, Kritische Berichte, I-II, 1927-9, p. 231 f., who also established the connection of El Greco with the generation of Mannerists working when he was in Rome.

3 It seems also likely that El Greco was influenced stylistically by Bosch in this painting. For the grotesquely ugly types among the soldiers are uncommon in El

Greco's work, but are in many ways reminiscent of those in Bosch.

4 There is a tradition that El Greco copied Correggio, cf. Los Santos, op. cit., p. 186. Other traces of his influence are to be found in the various versions of the 'Adoration of the Shepherds,' and in the 'Burial of Count Orgaz.'

5 Cf. Willumsen, La Jeunesse du Peintre El Greco, 1927, I, p. 518.