"The Burial of the Count of Orgaz" is one of El Greco's most famous paintings, and a key work in the Mannerist tradition. Painted between 1586 and 1588 in the church of Santo Tome in Toledo, it was commissioned to commemorate the funeral of Don Gonzalo Ruiz Toledo, Lord of Orgaz. At this legendary event which had taken place two and a half centuries earlier, the congregation saw St Stephen and St Augustine descend from heaven to place the body in its tomb. El Greco not only painted the scene as it was described, but turned it into a mystical vision of Heaven and Earth, with the Virgin and John the Baptist interceding before Christ, surrounded by saints and angels. In this book the painting is reproduced as a whole, then section by section, and finally in a series of details. The circumstances of the commission are described, the composition is analyzed and a brief biography of El Greco is included.
- ISBN10 0500237026
- ISBN13 9780500237021
- Publish Date 15 May 1995
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 26 September 2001
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Thames & Hudson Ltd
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 144
- Language English