The Name's Theotokópoulos. Doménikos Theotokópoulos.

This post is the third and final of a three-part series about my recent travels through Spain.

View of Toledo from the top of La Iglesia de San Ildefonso.

The Vision of St. John (1608-
1614). Metropolitan
Museum of Art.

Many years ago, during my first trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I spotted a totally out of place painting. Taking a closer look, I thought someone had screwed up and accidentally placed a modernist painting in the European art galleries covering 1600-1800. Surely the artist who created the twisted and ethereal forms I was seeing was from the 20th century and not from hundreds of years earlier, right? Wrong. The painting, called "The Vision of St. John", actually dates from the the early 1600s. I was simultaneously baffled and awestruck. My initial thought was, "who the heck was painting in such a style back in the 1600s?!" The answer, as I found out a few seconds later, was a fellow from Crete who spent most of his life in Spain. His name was Doménikos Theotokópoulos (Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος), more widely (and perhaps more conveniently) known as "El Greco".

This painting, as well as the other works I saw by El Greco, amazed me. There was just something so haunting and so otherworldly about them. In the course of my travels, I would go on to see a number of El Greco's paintings in various museums, like San Francisco's Legion of Honor or Munich's Alte Pinakothek. Finally, I had the chance to make it to El Greco's adopted hometown, the old Spanish city of Toledo.

The history of Toledo is so rich and so complex that I won't even dare to attempt even brief overview with this post. What I will say is that Toledo is known as the "City of the Three Cultures", which refers to the days when it was a capital city with a vibrant cultural mix of Jewish, Muslim, and Christian inhabitants. Founded as a Roman city, Toledo would become the capital of the Visigothic Kindgom in the Iberian peninsula and then a center of Muslim-ruled Spain. Once the city was reconquered by the Christians in the 11th century, it became capital of the Kingdom of Castile and then served as capital of a unified Spain until the mid-1500s. Nowadays, the city effortlessly and proudly totes it's vast cultural offerings and draws tons of tourists. While there were many, many sites to see in Toledo, this post focuses on those sites connected with El Greco.

The sumptuously Moorish
interior of Toledo's
train station.

I was up quite early and was one of the many tourists heading out to Toledo in what would be a (very long!) day trip. The trip from Madrid's Atocha station to Toledo via the high speed train only takes about 30 minutes. As soon as I stepped out of the train, I was already impressed. Toledo's train station, while rather small, is a gem of neo-Mudéjar (Moorish revival) architecture. The lovely station has been welcoming passengers to the city since the 1920s.

Although it's quite possible to walk from the station to the old city center in about 20 minutes, I decided to hop on a bus to save some time. I would need it. The bus dropped me off at the Plaza de Zocodover, which was a short distance from my first stop: the Museo de Santa Cruz.

Courtyard of the Museo de Santa Cruz.

The Museo de Santa Cruz as an institution dates from the 1960s but is housed in a former hospital built in the 1600s. Museums adapted to fit old buildings are a favorite of mine and I thought the arrangement of the museum was quite lovely. Strolling through the quiet courtyard, which had Roman, Visigothic, Arabic, and Christian artifacts on display, was very pleasant. There were a few other visitors at the museum but it was still relatively quiet and relaxing. The lack of tourist hordes made visiting the painting galleries a particularly intimate experience. In addition to many works by other Spanish Golden Age painters, there were of course many works by El Greco. One work in particular made a very strong impression on me. 

It was a painting called "The Virgin of the Immaculate Conception". Dating from around 1611, the painting shows the Holy Spirit and a heavenly host of angels surrounding the Virgin Mary. The Immaculate Conception was a popular subject in European religious art and yet El Greco's phantasmagorical rendering of the scene easily stands out as one of the most distinctive. I can't say that I've ever had an ecstatic mystical vision but I'd imagine it would look something like this painting. In this work, like so many others, El Greco isn't painting earthly figures and simple portraits. He isn't just presenting a snapshot of a story. He's painting souls and spirits as a gateway to the supernatural realm.
 

Virgin of the Immaculate Conception (ca. 1611).
Museo de Santa Cruz, Toledo.

Catedral Primada Santa
María de Toledo.

Having finished up at the Museo de Santa Cruz, I then wandered toward the center of Toledo to visit the famous cathedral. Wandering through Toledo's winding, narrow streets is a fun, if disorienting experience. For me, it went something like this: I plan my path very carefully, head out, get confused and totally lost, decide to forge ahead nonetheless, and then somehow wind up at exactly where I wanted to be having taken a completely different path than originally planned. And so, following the above procedure, I emerged from an alley and somehow found myself at the main entrance of the cathedral.

Toledo's iconic cathedral was built in the 1200s and like Toledo as a whole, the architecture is a unique blend of Gothic and Mudéjar styles. There are literally many layers of history surrounding this grand structure. The present cathedral was built over the remains of the city's great mosque, which itself was built over the remains of an earlier Visigothic cathedral. The Toledo cathedral was also meant to be a symbol of spiritual and temporal might. The powerful and highly influential Archdiocese of Toledo was said to be the second richest after Rome and with such prestige, it makes sense that there would be heavy investments in masterpiece art. Among the many artists to receive commissions for the cathedral was El Greco. One of the paintings by El Greco that adorn the cathedral is "The Disrobing of Christ". This work is particularly significant for a number of reasons. The first is that it's the earliest example of El Greco's work in Spain (dating from 1577-1579). The second, is that it remains one of his most famous works. As you can see, the painting somehow simultaneously contrasts and integrates the sacred and earthly realms. Although Jesus is shown being tormented by his captors, his demeanor and physical presence (expressed by the flowing red robe) are also shown to transcend them. While it's always a great experience to view masterpiece art in a museum, nothing compares to seeing such works of art in their intended settings. There can be no better place for a painting like this than a soaring, majestic cathedral.

The Disrobing of Christ (1579). Cathedral of Toledo.

Courtyard of the Museo del Greco.

My tour of Toledo led me to the old Jewish Quarter, located in the southeastern section of the old city. Aside from having two of Spain's three surviving synagogues, this area also houses the Museo del Greco. The museum, which opened in 1911, occupies an old house from the 1500s. It was originally thought this house was where El Greco himself lived and the museum is still commonly referred to as "Casa del Greco" or "The House of El Greco". Even though El Greco himself didn't live here, the museum is packed with artifacts from the period he lived and gives a good feel for the domestic life of a Spanish Golden Age artist in Toledo. As you might expect, there are many works from El Greco to be found here. While viewing an exhibit containing portraits of various Apostles, I noticed an elderly German fellow with a small video camera, filming each painting and giving a softly spoken commentary of some sort. When I came nearer to this guy, I realized he was saying some pretty weird stuff. For example, while looking at a painting of St. James, he mumbled something along the lines of "Mmmmm, St. James...with these colors....we can see...everything...that we wish..." I quietly (if quickly) moved on to the other paintings.

There were three paintings in particular that really stood out for me. The first was a portrait of St. John the Evangelist. Showing St. John holding a golden chalice containing a dragon, the composition and especially the sharply shaped face of the figure reminded me more of a modern anime series instead of a Spanish Golden Age representation of a Biblical figure.
 

St. John the Evangelist (ca. 1610).
Museo del Greco.

The next painting was one titled "The Tears of St. Peter". Here, St. Peter is turning to heaven, begging for forgiveness after denying Christ during the Passion. I've seen a lot of sorrowful figures in a lot of melancholic paintings but this is certainly one of the most emotive. Seeing this painting up close, it really seemed as if holy tears were seeping out of the canvas.

The Tears of St. Peter (ca. 1582).
Museo del Greco.

While El Greco is most famously known for his religious paintings and portraits, he also painted a few landscapes as well. Only two survive and one the one display at the museum was the "View and Plan of Toledo". Here, El Greco presents a mystical view of Toledo. 

View and plan of Toledo (ca. 1610).
Museo del Greco.

La Iglesia de Santo Tomé.

A sign pointing the way to
the cathedral entrance.

After some more hours of exploring Toledo, I finally (and somewhat unexpectedly) arrived at the church I had been waiting all day to see. La Iglesia de Santo Tomé is a small church in the middle of the Jewish Quarter. To be honest, it was really just another old church: Mudéjar style, lots of done up Catholic imagery, old wooden pews, etc. This church, however, does have one massive claim to fame. It houses what is one of, if not the most famous and iconic work of El Greco, "The Burial of the Count of Orgaz". Don Gonzalo Ruíz, the Count of Orgaz, was a well-known philanthropist and pious devotee of the Catholic church in the 1200s. According to legend, a miraculous event occurred at his funeral. It is said that St. Stephen and St. Augustine entered the church dressed in golden bishop robes and personally placed the Count of Orgaz in his coffin. El Greco's take on this legend is so rich and vivid that I won't even attempt an analysis or explanation. I'll just say that St. Stephen is the young bishop, St. Augustine the old one, and that El Greco included himself in the painting (he's the seventh from the left, to the upper right of the hand).

The Burial of the Count of Orgaz (1586). La Iglesia de Santo Tomé.

The tourist tram.

After some more hours of exploring Toledo, I found myself back at Plaza de Zocodover, where I saw a cheesy looking tourist tram. My first thought was "oh man, how kitch", but when I looked at the route the tram would take, I immediately bought a ticket. Aside from a good audio guide and a nice roundabout circuit through the city, the tram also stopped at the hills overlooking the city. Although walkable, I was quite tired and didn't have the energy (or the time) to hike all the way up there. With the sun starting to go down, the tram stopped for about ten minutes to give us passengers time to enjoy an amazing, El Greco style view of the city.

Holy Toledo!

At the end of a very long day, I took a leisurely stroll back to the train station. On my way, I noticed an advertisement for huge exhibition called El Greco 2014 (showing St. John the Evangelist). The festivities will celebrate four hundred years since the passing of the great painter and will feature many exhibitions all over the city. Surprisingly, this is the first event of this sort to take place in Toledo. While El Greco has gained much appreciation in the modern age, many of his contemporaries and later critics viewed his unconventional style as bizarre. If by "bizarre" they meant "distinctive", then I'd be inclined to agree. El Greco's style is highly distinctive, which is exactly why I love it so much. He's one of those very, very rare artists that truly transcend style and time. As for the "El Greco 2014" festival, I have no doubt it will be a huge success and inspiration to many, like El Greco's art itself.