| View of Toledo | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Artist | El Greco |
| Year | 1596-1600 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Location | Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City |
| Dimensions | 47.8 in × 42.8 in |
| 121.3 cm × 108.6 cm | |
| Famous Paintings by El Greco | |
| The Disrobing of Christ, 1577–1579 | |
| Opening of the Fifth Seal, 1608-1614 | |
| Dormition of the Virgin, 1565-1566 | |
| The Burial of the Count of Orgaz, 1586 | |
| View of Toledo, 1596-1600 | |
| The Adoration of the Shepherds, 1612–14 | |
| Christ Healing the Blind, c. 1570 | |
| The Entombment of Christ, c.1570 | |
| St. Martin and the Beggar, 1597-1599 | |
| Complete Works |
The View of Toledo is one of two landscape paintings by El Greco that featured the Spanish city that he had made his home. The painting, which measures 47.8 by 42.8 inches, is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. It is part of the Havemeyer Collection bequeathed to the museum in 1929.
Style and Composition
The painting was made in Baroque or Late Renaissance style. It is unusual in that Spanish artists at the time did not do landscape paintings, so this painting, and another El Greco work, View and Plan of Toledo, are the first landscape paintings in Spanish art.
The painting is not an accurate representation of the city at the time. The perspective of the city is the eastern side as seen from the north. However, the artist wanted to include the cathedral, which would not have been visible from the chosen perspective, so he moved it to the left of the old Moorish Alcazar.