The Burial of Count Orgaz
The painting is in the Church of St. Tome. Toledo.
Santo Tomé was founded in the 12th century, but was completely rebuilt in the 14th century thanks to funds from the Lord of Orgaz, the subject of El Greco's famous painting. Don Gonzalo Ruíz was a native of Toledo and Señor of the town of Orgaz (the title of Count came to his family later).
He died in 1312, leaving substantial funds for the enlargement and adornment of the Church of Santo Tomé. Orgaz was a pious man who donated to numerous charities and local legend has it that Saint Stephen and Saint Augustine intervened at his burial to lay him to rest.
A painting depicting this legend was commissioned for the chapel in which Orgaz was buried on March 18, 1586. The occassion for the commission was the resumption of the tribute payable to the church by the town of Orgaz, which had been withheld for over two centuries.
The chosen painter was El Greco, whose parish church was Santo Tomé. He agreed to finish the painting by Christmas of the same year. El Greco's painting was completed in 1586 as promised and people began flocking to the church to see the painting almost immediately. They were especially impressed by the lifelike portraits of the notable men of Toledo of the time.
The Virgin of the Immaculate Conception.
The Virgin of the Immaculate Conception is related to Saint John's Vision of the Apocalypse: 'And there appeared a great wonder in Heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: and she being with child cried, . . . And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne . . .' (Revelation, xii).
The roses, iris, olive, palm, portal and throne all belong to the iconography of the Immaculate Conception. The twelve stars have been omitted. This subject, related in composition to that of the Assumption of the Virgin, with which it is sometimes confused, was more suited to El Greco's genius, more in sympathy with the expression of the purely supernatural image. In Spain, he avoids anything that can be related to mundane actions or events, which would detract from the expression of the supernatural. The rather angular and schematic quality of the design is appropriate to the image, and captures something of the grand effect of Byzantine designs. The mandorla shape, belonging to this image - the clothing with the sun - is again introduced effectively in the Burial of the Count of Orgaz. The general pattern is retained in the splendid late painting in the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid. The subject inspired the great masterpiece of his last years.
