| Artist | El Greco |
|---|---|
| Year | 1596-1600 |
| Type | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 121.3 cm × 108.6 cm (47.8 in × 42.8 in) |
| Location | Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City |
View of Toledo, is one of the two surviving landscapes painted by El Greco. The other, called View and Plan of Toledo lies at Museo Del Greco, Toledo, Spain.
Along with Vincent van Gogh's The Starry Night, some landscapes by William Turner, and some works by Monet, it is among the best known depictions of the sky in Western art, and features sharp color contrast between the sky and the hills below. Painted in a Mannerist (or Baroque) style, the work takes liberties with the actual layout of Toledo (some buildings are depicted in different positions than their actual location, but truthfully depicts on the side the Castle of San Servando). It is signed on the lower right corner by El Greco.
It's very rare to find an isolated landscape in the spanish paintings during the Renaissance and even during the Baroque. This makes El Greco the first landscaper in the history of Spanish art. Regarding its enigmatic symbolism, it is thought that it could be related to the mystic spirit that the city was involved during those times.[1] The English art historian David Davies asserts that the philosophies of Platonism and ancient Neo-Platonism, the works of Plotinus and Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, the texts of the Church fathers and the liturgy offer the keys to the understanding of El Greco's style.[2] Summarizing the ensuing scholarly debate on this issue, José Álvarez Lopera, curator at the Museo del Prado, Madrid, concludes that the presence of "Byzantine memories" is obvious in El Greco's mature works, though there are still some obscure issues concerning his Byzantine origins needing further illumination.[3]
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