El Greco in Toledo

Our group posing as we left the cathedral.

We left the cathedral still in awe of all we had seen.  We followed our guide (in a red shirt waving his hands to hurry up already!) back through the city streets passing by street musicians.  If we were not in such a hurry, it would have been nice to stay and listen for a bit.  Our guide had other places to take us and if we did not follow quickly we would certainly lose him. We were going to see the most celebrated painting by El GRECO.

 El Greco (Domennikos Theotokopoulus) came to Toledo around the age of 36 after leaving his home country of Crete which was owned by Venice at the time.  He developed his art in Venice and in Rome.  By the time he was studying in Rome he was developing his unique style if elongated figures and his use of colors. This style was quite different from that of Michelangelo whom everyone held in high regard. So El Greco left for Toledo which at the time  was the religious capital of Europe.  In Toledo he met with emissaries of Phillip II who provided many commissions one of which was the Burial of Count of Orgaz.  


The legend  behind the painting centers around Don Gonzalo Ruiz.  He was a native of Toledo and a lord of the town of Orgaz twenty miles south of Toledo.  When he died in 1323 he donated a lot of money to the town and money to improve the church of San Tome. He also gave money to the Augustine friers.  Legend says that because he was such a religious man that when he died St. Stephen and St. Augustine came down from heaven and carried him with their own hands to his burial site, this chapel, in front of the astonished crowd.

 This was the painting that El Greco was commissioned by Andres Nunez of Madrid, the curate of the church. As part of the pious tribute the people of Orgaz were to pay to the curator of the church and the ministers as well as the poor of the parish two sheep, sixteen hens, two wine skins full of wine, two loads of firewood, and 800 coins.  This was to be an annual offering but the people refused to pay.  So it was brought up as a law suit and the people of Orgaz were forced to pay by the order of the Chancery of Valladolid.  The case was energetically prosecuted by Andres Nunez and Pedro Ruiz the administrator of the church. This successful lawsuit led to the commission of the painting. In 1586 El Greco was asked to paint the burial and pay homage to the aristocracy, poets, scholars, and Nunez and Ruiz by immortalizing them in the painting.

The Burial of the Count of Orgaz

The painting is divided into two parts; the upper part shows the heavenly figures, and the lower part shows the burial on earth. The Dormition of the Virgin was said to be a composition model for this painting because of the structure of the two parts. There is so much to see in this painting that  you would need to sit and stare at it for a whole  afternoon.  That is just what  James Michener did  in 1964  when he described it in his book, Iberia. So I would like to play a game with  you and see if you can find the people, or hidden objects in this painting.  I will start with the easy ones first:
      Jesus Christ
      Virgin Mary
      Count of Orgaz in two places
      St. John the Baptist
      St. Peter
      apostles
      martyrs
      Biblical kings
      Phillip II of Spain
      St. Augustine
      St. Stephen
      Son of El Greco
     Handkerchief with the artist signature and date if the painting
     The face of El Greco
     The girl angel (all angels were supposed to be male) carrying up the soul of the count.
     Three musicians
     Town dignitaries
     Stoning of St. Stephen
     Keys of St. Peter
     Andres Nunez
     Pedro Ruiz
     Brother of the St. Augustine Order
    
As you can imagine we did not have enough time to savor this painting, and at the time the guide did not explain very much of it to us.  Father Cadarso was doing his best but it was difficult for all of us to hear and fully understand.  So I hope this quiz will be a bit enlightening. 

We left the little church with blinking eyes into the hot Spanish sun and followed our guide down the streets of Toledo.  When we came up to the 'Toledo Boy' we were all ready for  lunch and cold one.