Richardson and Foundoulaki emphasize on the morphological parallels between the "Opening of the Fifth Seal" and "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon", and explore the Picasso–Cézanne–El Greco relationship. Foundoulaki asserts that there is a similarity of shape and that Picasso ingeniously repeated the game with the |V and the inverted triangles of El Greco, something he had already begun in "The Villagers". According to Foundoulaki, "the dialogue Picasso inaugurated with El Greco in "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon", by means of Cézanne, is carried on in Cubism". Richardson sees the Apocalypse in El Greco's "Opening of the Fifth Seal" as the catalyst which showed Picasso how to harness the spiritual energy of a great religious artist to his own demonic ends. According to Richardson, Picasso followed this apocalyptic vision his whole life.