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How did Byzantine art influence El Greco’s El Espolio?
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El Greco
Burial of the Count de Orgaz, oil on canvas by El Greco, 1586–88; in the church of Santo Tomé, Toledo, Spain.
In his masterpiece El Espolio (1577–79), El Greco utilized his Byzantine heritage to enhance the composition's emotional impact. While he employed a method of space elimination common among Italian Mannerists to emphasize the oppression of Christ by his tormentors, he also drew upon late Byzantine painting traditions. Specifically, he incorporated the technique of superimposing heads row upon row to effectively suggest a dense, crowded scene.1