This arresting landscape is almost unique in the work of the artist known as El Greco, which simply means ‘the Greek’ in Spanish. El Greco was born on the island of Crete, where he learned to make icons: sacred paintings for the Eastern Orthodox Church. He moved to Venice and was introduced to Italian painting. Then he settled in the Spanish city of Toledo. That’s where he painted this canvas at the very end of the sixteenth century in his own highly individual style.

We are immediately struck by the strange grandeur of El Greco’s view of his adopted city—a view that has been dubbed a spiritual portrait of the place. El Greco was happy to rearrange the architecture of the city, which is situated on a hill overlooking the Roman Bridge. In the painting, he gives the cathedral and the royal palace—or Alcazar—more prominence. His depiction of a monastery at the left makes it seem to float on a cloud. Above all the stormy skies show the power of God and nature, darkening the buildings and turning the foliage a lurid green. The way that the forms float and twist into unusual shapes is characteristic of El Greco’s figures as well. You can see this, too, in the Museum’s exceptionally fine collection of his work on display in this gallery.

If you’d like to hear how these works entered the collection, press play. To continue on, our tour takes you next to another painter: Rembrandt.