El Greco at Illescas

El Greco painted these five extraordinarily fine works for one of the most prominent religious centres in the province of Toledo: the Hospital de Misericordia y Beneficencia in Illescas, called Hospital de Caridad, which was home to a small yet widely revered Marian image (Virgen de la Caridad or Our Lady of Charity). The hospital complex, built at the order of Cardinal Cisneros in 1500 as a centre of Christian charity and mercy, included a shrine to minister to the needs of the townspeople of Illescas and the pilgrims who visited it.

The first of El Greco’s canvases for the Shrine of Nuestra Señora de la Caridad depicts Saint Ildephonsus. The Cretan artist opted for a novel representation of the saint in this composition, a warm, poignant portrait that shows him seated at his desk and writing a text inspired by the image of Our Lady of Charity. The contemporary features, clothing and setting tell us that El Greco situated the subject in his own time, around the year 1600. Three years later, El Greco and his son Jorge Manuel received the commission to decorate the main chapel of the hospital church, which housed the aforementioned carving of the Madonna. They produced four canvases of different sizes and formats, designed to glorify the Virgin, which would be placed at the top of that chapel. These canvases were made shortly after El Greco completed his only known commission in Madrid, the altarpiece for the College of Doña María de Aragón (1597–1600). The Prado owns five canvases from that altarpiece, a project which, along with the Illescas paintings, introduced what would be El Greco’s final style. In mid-1603, El Greco reached an agreement with the archdiocese of Toledo to create the main altarpiece of the hospital church, a building completed not long afterwards to provide a worthy home for Our Lady of Charity, a fervently venerated image with a reputation for working miracles.

El Greco revived a medieval iconography to portray the Virgin Mary as protector of the faithful, represented by six gentlemen dressed in contemporary fashion. The one on the right has been identified as Jorge Manuel, the painter’s son and co-author of the commission, who may have had a hand in making this more schematic painting. The hospital administrators were critical of these figures, which they deemed inappropriate. In 1902, the canvas was enlarged and moved to one of the side altars.