Christ Healing the Blind

El Greco experiments with lessons learned from Venetian Renaissance painting in this important early work: a paved floor and complex architecture create plunging perspective; dramatic gestures by elongated figures establish the narrative; and the mesmerizing palette is chalky and highly keyed. El Greco depicts Christ healing a blind man as bystanders, including two daringly cropped figures crossing the foreground, marvel at this act. The upper left portion of the canvas is unfinished and reveals El Greco loosely sketching figures, a manner of paint handling that he would increasingly retain in his finished work. Three versions of this subject are known by El Greco, but it seems that he brought this one with him when he left Italy for Spain in 1576.