How does this artwork elucidate its Analysis?
Both of the paintings are nearly identical in composition, though the one held at the Instituto Valencia of Don Juan is on a slightly smaller canvas. In the mountainous landscape, within a circular forest clearing, are individual hermitages arranged into rows, with a central complex for group worship. In the foreground on either side of a tabernacle stand saints central to the foundation of the Camaldolese: Saint Benedict to the left, and Saint Romuald to the right. Romuald holds a model of the circular monastery complex in his hand. The tabernacle frames a poem in Latin praising Saint Romuald, and Latin text below identifies the image as a "Description of the Hermetical Life."It is unlikely that El Greco had ever been to a Camaldolese monastery and he likely drew inspiration from other sources. Harold Wethey was among the first to note that the composition was likely derived from a print depicting the Holy Hermitage of Camaldoli in the mountains near Arezzo, Italy. Robert Byron and David Talbot Rice argued that the arrangement of the monastery resembles the depiction of the Holy City of Jerusalem in the Cretan School of post-Byzantine icon painting, in which El Greco was a master before he emigrated to Italy and Spain.
Romuald David Talbot Rice El Greco master Robert Byron Saint Benedict monastery Cretan School Valencia Arezzo Jerusalem Instituto Valencia of Don Juan Italy Camaldoli left Saint Romuald Harold Wethey Spain Camaldolese