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after (129A) Penrose said “His admiration for the master of Toledo and his interest in the fact that it is a self- portrait have not restrained him from making fundamental changes, although at the same time he has kept faithfully to the spirit of the work. He has treated his subject, the original painting, as formerly he treated a guitar, analyzing it and making a statement of its essential qualities without failing to take every detail into account. The head of El Greco, surrounded by a white ruff, is greatly enlarged, and the features, instead of presenting an almost photographic likeness, are formed, rather than deformed, in a way which changes their static appearance into one of movement. El Greco's right hand, with little finger raised, holding the brush, is spread out nervously like a flower and El Greco's small rectangular palette, held in his left hand, is unchanged in shape, but it becomes unmistakable the less tidy palette of Picasso. El Greco's portrait with its Renaissance conception of reality prepared the ground for photography. Picasso's version some three hundred and fifty years later opens our eyes to a new vision in painting, and a new attitude towards reality” (Penrose 343).

EXAMPLE FROM 1954

"Femmes d'Alger" 1954 (130)

Ostensibly, a copy of Delacroix's "Femmes d'Alger," Picasso's delight was in developing Delacroix's "Death of Sardanapalus" (126A) to make his "Femmes d'Alger" (130).

EXAMPLE FROM 1957

"The Maids of Honor" after Velazquez 1957 (131)

In the summer of 1957, Picasso began a series of works which had as their starting point a huge black and white photograph of Velazquez's "The Maids of Honor" (131A). Five months later he had produced fifty-eight painted variations. (131) is but one example.

EXAMPLE FROM 1958

"Buste de Femme d'Apres Cranach" 1958 (132)

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