EL GRECO From Italy to Toledo

VISIBLE IMAGE

This work belongs to the author's Toledo period. By then his style had altered considerably: the figures are elongated and unusually elegant, the compositions are tighter, and the brushwork is increasingly swifter and impressionistic. Meanwhile, the architectural elements have disappeared and been replaced by neutral, dark backgrounds.

The palette is dominated by the dark tones of the grounds, visible on the paint layer in numerous areas and used as a pictorial device to achieve a grisaille effect. The coloured glazes applied over them are what lend this work its characteristic dazzling luminosity.