Image source: Wikimedia Commons (Public domain). View source
The Burial of the Count of Orgaz
El Greco · Renaissance & Mannerism
- Artist
- El Greco (1541–1614)
- Date
- 1586–1588
- Dimensions
- 480 x 360 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- Church of Santo Tomé, Toledo, Spain
This huge canvas, still in the Toledo church for which it was painted, depicts a local legend: at the funeral of the pious Count of Orgaz in 1323, Saint Stephen and Saint Augustine miraculously descended from heaven to lay his body in the tomb with their own hands.
A closer look
The painting is divided into two worlds. Below, in a solid, earthly zone, the two saints in shimmering gold vestments lower the armoured body, watched by a row of solemn Toledo noblemen dressed in black with white ruffs, many of them portraits of El Greco's contemporaries. Above, in a swirling heaven of elongated figures and luminous clouds, an angel carries the count's soul, shown as a small translucent figure, up towards Christ, the Virgin and John the Baptist. The contrast between the calm row of faces and the visionary sky makes it El Greco's masterpiece.
