View of Toledo
Toledo
El Greco · c. 1599 to 1600
01
Toledo. Around 1600.
A painter from Crete paints his city.
He almost never paints landscape.
Two survive. This is one.
02
The sky is tearing open.
Black cloud. Green-white light.
No sun anywhere.
03
Across the river, a castle on the ridge.
San Servando.
It stands where it really stands.
04
Below it, the Alcántara bridge.
The Tagus runs dark underneath.
05
On the crest, the cathedral spire.
Beside it, the Alcázar, the royal palace.
Church and crown, side by side.
From this hill you can't see the cathedral. He moved it in.
The whole city.
Uncropped.
“It was necessary to place the Hospital of Don Juan Tavera in the form of a model”
1929
The Havemeyers first see it in 1901.
Louisine Havemeyer buys it in 1909.
Her will leaves it to the Met.
It has hung in New York ever since.
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