Amid several 16th century works of art, the painting “Toledo” by El Greco

Amid several 16th century works of art, the painting “Toledo” by El Greco (the Greek) is exhibited in the H. O. Havemeyer Collection, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. This piece is somewhat of small size and brushed in on a canvas with oil paint. Its small size and unrealistic dimmed colors make it a prominent piece in the divergent brightly decorated gallery. The exhibit is composed mainly of large black and white paintings; almost all of them Spanish of origin and made sometime in the late 16th to early 17th century.
El Greco’s painting is located in the middle of the corridor surrounded by two other pieces of rather large size. The position of the canvas serves as a focal point for the whole collection, however one might expect it to be placed somewhere else, due to the unpopularity of the piece. Similar to other pieces, at its right, in the wall is the sign that states the artist’s life span, 1541-1614; along with the following description :”The painter’s given name was Domenikos Theotokopoulos. In Toledo, where he lived for nearly forty years, he was known as “El Greco” (the Greek). This view is the only independent landscape by the artist that survives. He has imaginatively reconfigured the city, showing the cathedral not in its actual position but to the left of the Alcázar palace.”
The cathedral seems to be the focus of the painting as it stands in the middleground and to the right. The city skyline is so abstract its almost symbolic, the buildings themselves however have been done with an enormous amount of detail, giving it a very familiar aspect with strong realistic features. The cathedral stands tall, almost centered on the storm cloud behind it. Its long narrow windows with pointed arches span nearly to the top of the tower, while the crockets atop the buttresses, line the soaring spire. The use of many shades of gray and shadows for the corner walls shows El Greco’s skill in capt