Daily Artwork — “View of Toledo, El Greco, c1599”
Use the images posted in this feature for writing prompts, warm-up activities, drawing templates or as part of an artwork critique.
c1599 — View of Toledo. Oil paint on canvas. Mannerism style. El Greco (1541-1614). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, USA.
“One of only two surviving landscapes by El Greco, View of Toledo is among the best known depictions of the sky in western art. At the time it was painted, it was rare to portray an isolated landscape scene, making El Greco the first landscape artist in the history of Spanish art. It is not a true representation of the landscape of Toledo, however. Although the castle is in the correct place, the rest of the buildings are not truly represented in location or distance to each other. The painting is specifically mentioned in the movie “V for Vendetta,” in which the main character Evey Hammond directs her captor’s eyes toward the painting.” (WikiArt)