El Greco. Santo Domingo el Antiguo

In mid-1577, El Greco, a newcomer to Spain, was awarded two of the most important commissions of his career to date: The Disrobing of Christ for the Toledo Cathedral and the three altarpieces for the Cistercian monastery of Santo Domingo el Antiguo, one of the city’s oldest monasteries.

Since 1579, this monastery has included a new church in the classicist style, paid for by Doña María de Silva (1513–1575), a Portuguese woman who was the lady-in waiting to Empress Isabella, wife of Charles V, and by Diego de Castilla (c. 1507–1584), dean of the cathedral. The space was intended to be the burial place of its two benefactors.

To create the main altarpiece and the two side altarpieces for the Santo Domingo el Antiguo church, Don Diego appointed El Greco based on the suggestion of his son Luis de Castilla (c. 1540–1618), who had met the painter at Farnese Palace in Rome in 1571. This recommendation made it possible for El Greco to undertake a particularly complex task, which involved designing the structure of the three altarpieces, the five sculptures that crowned the main altarpiece, and the painting of eight canvases, with the specific request that they be completed by his hand. The entire work was conceived as a renewal of traditional Castilian altarpieces. The main altarpiece was arranged around a large canvas representing the theme of The Assumption of the Virgin, a work that took predominance over the other paintings: the four saints on the side panels – St. John the Baptist, St. John the Evangelist, St. Bernard and St. Benedict – and The Holy Trinity in the upper section. Years after the church was inaugurated, a wooden coat of arms located above the central painting was covered with the Veil of Veronica, a work that was also created by El Greco.

The commission was completed in 1579 and the result must have captured the admiration of all those who saw it; El Greco proved to be an eminent, bold and capable master who worked with stunning ease to make large works that were permeated with Italian details both in the figurative models and in the colouring and workmanship.

Except for three paintings that still remain in the church (the paintings of St. John the Baptist, St. John the Evangelist, and the Resurrection), the rest started to be moved to other locations in 1830. Bringing all the paintings together, except for the canvas depicting St. Bernard, which is kept at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, marks an artistic event that allows us to enjoy this exceptional collection, El Greco’s first production in Spain.