A photograph by Dionisio González incorporating imagined skyscrapers and futuristic buildings in the city of Toledo, home to El Greco. CreditDionisio González, via Ivorypress

TOLEDO, Spain — When he arrived in Toledo in 1577, the artist Doménikos Theotokópoulos, better known as El Greco, never thought he would stay long. After he had been rejected by King Philip II as a court painter, he sought a lifeline in a city that was then Spain’s religious hub, building up a clientele among its clergy as well as noblemen, particularly for portraits and altarpieces.

But these altarpieces were expensive to produce and El Greco ended up fighting as many as nine separate lawsuits over payments. “He lived here deep in debt and circled by his creditors,” said Fernando Marías, an art historian and the curator of “The Greek of Toledo,” an exhibition that opened last month in the Museum of Santa Cruz here and is being presented as the largest-ever exhibition of the painter’s works.

Still, Spain is paying tribute this year to its adopted son with a multipart commemoration of the least Spanish of its great painters to mark the 400 years since his death, with several exhibitions, mostly held in Toledo but also in Madrid and Valladolid. In total, 125 works by El Greco will be on view in exhibitions across Toledo, in locations ranging from its magnificent cathedral to the private family chapel of Saint Joseph, which had never been opened to the public before. The painter is believed to have completed around 300 works.

El Greco strove to demonstrate that modern painting, through a then-revolutionary use of techniques that highlighted light and colors, could surpass in greatness the works of classical antiquity. In turn, “he is really the most modern of the old masters, the one with the biggest influence on the painting of the twentieth century, from the Impressionists to Pollock,” said Gregorio Marañón, the president of the Fundación El Greco 2014, which was set up to manage the exhibitions and events devoted to the commemoration, with a €20 million budget raised mostly from private corporate donors. Among the exhibitions, “El Greco and Modern Painting” in Madrid’s Prado museum, which runs from June 24 until Oct. 5, highlights this connection.

But, “The Greek of Toledo,” which runs through June 14, is the most ambitious program in the commemoration, featuring 76 paintings. The show is composed of works on loan from private collections and museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington and the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.....Continue Reading

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