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Portrait of an Elderly Man (Self-Portrait?)
Ca. 1595-1600
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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El Greco adopts a simple, bust-length formula he had used in earlier portraits. He poses the man against a dark, neutral ground and concentrates on revealing the character of his sitter entirely through the face. While the man wears a ruff and fur-lined coat, we are only barely aware of them because we are captivated by his large, earnest eyes and the hint of melancholy they reveal.
The engaging psychological presence of the sitter implies that El Greco regarded him as a sympathetic character. This air of familiarity was perhaps the reason the painting was also identified as a self portrait. Unfortunately, this identification cannot be substantiated because there is no certain image of the painter.
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