The Santo Domingo el Antiguo Altarpiece is a 1577-1579 altarpiece by

El Greco Domḗnikos Theotokópoulos ( el, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος ; 1 October 1541 7 April 1614), most widely known as El Greco ("The Greek"), was a Greek painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El G ...

, painted for the Monastery of Santo Domingo el Antiguo in

Toledo, Spain Toledo ( , ) is a city and municipality of Spain, capital of the province of Toledo and the ''de jure'' seat of the government and parliament of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castilla–La Mancha. Toledo was declare ...

. The artist had just arrived in Spain and this was his first major commission there, gained thanks to

Diego de Castilla Diego de Castilla (1510/15-1584) was a Spanish cleric who served as dean of Toledo Cathedral. He was a patron of the painter El Greco. Family Castilla inherited the position of dean of Toledo on the death of his father in 1545. Castilla was of Jewi ...

, who he had met in Rome. The total commission was for nine canvases, seven for the high altar and two for side altars. The high altarpiece was made up of an upper main canvas (''The Holy Trinity''), a lower main canvas (''

Assumption of the Virgin The Assumption of Mary is one of the four Catholic_Mariology#Dogmatic_teachings, Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII defined it in 1950 in his apostolic constitution ''Munificentissimus Deus'' as follows: We proclaim and d ...

''), four flanking panels of saints (''St John the Evangelist'', ''St John the Baptist'', ''St Bernard'' and ''St Benedict'') and a small painting on the tympanum between the two main paintings (''Sudarium''). Of these, only the original panels of ''St John the Baptist'' and ''St John the Evangelist'' remain in situ, along with the painting for the right-hand side altarpiece, ''Resurrection''. ''Assumption'' is now in the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...

and ''Holy Trinity'' in the

Prado Museum The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It is widely considered to house one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from the ...

. The rest are replaced in the church by copies. File:Retaules de Santo Domingo el Antiguo (Toledo).jpg, Wider photo showing the two side altars

References

Paintings by El Greco in the Museo del Prado Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago 1570s paintings Paintings of John the Apostle Paintings of John the Baptist Altarpieces {{16C-painting-stub

See also

References