Compare and Contrast Essay about Miracle of Christ Healing the Blind by EL Greco and
Denial of St. Peter by Caravaggio.

Miracle of Christ Healing the Blind by El Greco and Denial of St. Peter by Caravaggio are both oil paintings depicting biblical events from the New Testament.
The expressive components of both compositions reflect two different artistic styles conveying profound religious and spiritual content. El Greco’s painting encompasses the hallmarks of High Renaissance masters such as solidly rendered figures, dazzling colors, deep spatial recession and Roman architecture. Caravaggio’s dramatic use of light and shadow and meticulous attention to poses and gestures of his subjects are emblematic of the naturalistic realism of the Baroque period. The elaborate architectural setting of El Greco’s canvas with its deep linear perspective is filled with groupings of figures in the foreground. The figures, although realistically depicted and covered with body conforming drapery, appear elongated.
Their gestures, facial expressions and twisted postures create a sense of movement, commotion, and reverence evoked by the mystical event of healing the blindness.
The group of people on the right directs the gaze of the viewer to the figure of the blind man being healed by Jesus, and then it goes to the man on the left, turned backwards, with his finger pointing up. Just as the act of healing the blindness carries a symbolic meaning of the revelation of faith his gesture might signify that one could achieve salvation and eternal life in heaven through deep faith and following the teachings of Jesus. This dreamlike vision of this miraculous event is conjured up by painter’s use of rich saturated colors such as pink, blue, orange and green, built up in layers of individual brushstrokes that make up a very vibrant composition. Vast luminous space combined with bold colors creates a very emotional effect on the viewer. Alternations of voluptuous, overlapping figures with diagonals of the architecture and tiled sidewalk bring harmony and balance to the composition. The clarity of form and content makes this masterpiece easily accessible and understandable to the viewer. On the other hand, Caravaggio’s Denial of St. Peter contains limited number of figures, exactly three, shown from the waist up. They are relatively large in relation to the size of the painting, rendered in a fragmented fashion that conveys the realistic volume of a human body. The painter expressed little interest in creating depth in his painting, the figures seem to emerge from the dark background, that serves as a backdrop to the drama played out in the foreground. The meaning of the composition is conveyed entirely by the poses, gestures and facial expressions of the subjects. The viewer cannot embrace the whole composition synthetically like in the case of El Greco’s Miracle of Christ Healing the Bind, because it much less accessible. Since the work is devoid of spatial references to objects, the eye must follow and examine the entire network of relations set up by the characters’ gestures and poses. First, we see Peter with his sorrowful face and his hands pointed to his chest, then we turn to the face of the woman looking at the soldier and pointing her accusing finger at Peter, and this is how we are able to understand the narrative aspect of the painting. The scene is not evenly lit like El Greco’s canvas, the light that comes from an undefined source, probably a fireplace or lit candle selectively illuminates it. The viewer cannot see the face of the soldier because it is blending with the dark background.
The face of the woman accusing Peter of being a follower of Jesus can be seen, but it is rendered in a rather sketchy way. The spotlight falls on Peter’s forehead and his hands pointing to his chest, his face becomes the expressive center of the painting. His facial expression covers whole range of feelings and emotions such as sadness, subdued fear, guilt and resignation. His faith is being put to the ultimate test when his accusers confront him. His gesture and the furrowed brow indicate denial, but his sorrowful face reflects some deep internal dilemma. El Greco’s purely narrative and instructive composition conveys the message of the revelation of faith and redemption in a positive manner. This contrasts with Caravaggio’s concentration on a human drama and his engaging in a psychological penetration of Peter’s mind. The viewer cannot escape Peter’s sadness and the agony of his spirit. Caravaggio’s dramatic, yet silent atmosphere of his canvas is achieved by the contrast of light and shadow to define the importance of the depicted subjects. Just as El Greco’s radiant colors heighten the emotional and spiritual energy of his painting Caravaggio’s choice of warm colors such as red, yellow and brown add a sedate quality to the dramatic nature of his composition. The smooth, unbroken paint surface of the picture suggests that the painter used a very soft brush to apply the paint to the canvas layer upon layer in a continuous motion. The overall effect is that of delicacy and softness of his warm palette.
The texture of El Greco’s painting is less regular because the colors were applied in short individual brushstrokes, yet it has a quality of translucency and sheerness. Caravaggio infuses his painting with meanings that are not noticeable immediately, his audience needs to find a comfortable viewing distance to be able to carefully study the angles, positions and body language of the subjects, and then reflect on their meanings. El Greco’s composition is more accessible and understandable because he seems to focus on the symbolic nature of Christ’s miracle in regards to spirituality and religion in a general sense, rather than the individual experience of faith.

Reference:
1. Metropolitan Gallery Text Panels
2. The History of Art by M.Stoksard