... intended to decorate the painter's tomb in the church of Santo Domingo el Antiguo de Toledo

2. ... intended to decorate the painter's tomb in the church of Santo Domingo el Antiguo de Toledo

3. enthusiasm, faith and passion …
a beautifully realized creation
one of El Greco's last paintings, and it is also one of his finest

4. El Greco, Doménikos Theotokópoulos
The Adoration of the Shepherds
Prado Museum, Madrid

6. Greco began to work on the The Adoration of the Shepherds in 1612, finishing it two years later,
just before his death.
The painting's subject is taken from the story of the Nativity:
it depicts the shepherds witnessing the miracle represented by the newborn Jesus Christ.
Extreme distortion of body, striking contrasts between light and dark passages heighten the sense of drama.

8. The lower part of the painting features the secular while the upper half represents the Divine world,
angels singing songs of praise to the Lord.

10. Light radiates from the Child and the dazzling white cloth on which He lies, illuminating the figures
of Mary and the amazed shepherds who have gathered to pay homage to his miraculous birth.

12. The compositional ellipse is closed at the top by a group of angels very close to the holy family.
They express Heaven’s pleasure at the birth of the Redeemer, bearing a banner that reads
GLORIA IN EXCEL[SIS DEO E]T IN TERRA PAX [HOMINIBUS].

14. The brilliant, "dissonant" colours and the strange shapes and poses create a sense of wonder and ecstasy …

16. on a snow-white sheet, the prefiguration of the shroud,
Christ Child emits an intense light that bathes the small group contemplating him:
the Virgin, Saint Joseph, three shepherds and a group of angels that form a sort of celestial vault ...

20. With a highly rhetorical gesture, the Virgin holds open Jesus’s white swaddling cloth revealing the miracle
of the Incarnation.
Her gesture is not meant for the shepherds or the angels.
Rather it answers the conversation in which Joseph and the elderly man next to him are deeply engrossed.

24. El Greco focuses on the moment when shepherds kneel in front of the infant Jesus, venerating him.
The white lamb, the gift they brought, foretells Christ’s sacrifice.
El Greco himself is depicted as the bearded shepherd who wears a bright orange-red jacket.

31. Against the background of the sky composed of flashing whites and blues, a group of angels hovers above the scene.
One holds a banner with the words (probably added later) 'Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth peace’.

35. You can see how gloomy the faces of the angels hovering over Christ are,
they know what is intended for him:
perish painfully in the name of the salvation of humanity ...

37. olga_oes
El Greco, Doménikos Theotokópoulos
The Adoration of the Shepherds
Prado Museum, Madrid
L'Adoration des bergers
Musée du Prado, Madrid
images and text credit www.
Music The Piano Guys What Child Is This (Piano & Electric Cello)
created olga.e.
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38. The sublime Adoration of the Shepherds of the Prado Museum marks the culmination of the formal
refinement of the composition with which the painter had depicted this subject in his versions,
from between 1597 and 1605, for the altarpieces of Doña María de Aragón, at the Muzeul National de artà,
Bucharest, the Colegio del Patriarca in Valencia, and Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome.
The Metropolitan Museum of New York has a version which was made around the same time as
the original canvas.

39. preparatory bozzetto by the hand of El Greco himself
of the painting for the Colegio di Doña María de Aragón
in Madrid, now housed in the Muzeul de Arta, Bucharest
El Greco
Adoration of the Shepherds
L'Adoration des bergers
1596-1600
Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome

43. through an overture, we see the distant
annunciation to the shepherds
El Greco
Adoration of the Shepherds
L'Adoration des bergers
1605
Museu del Patriarca de València, Valencia

46. The Adoration of the Shepherds was part of the high altar
of the Doña María de Aragón colegiate church in Madrid
on which El Greco had worked between 1596 and 1600
the altar was dismantled in the early 19th century,
the other five paintings being now with the Prado Museum
El Greco
Adoration of the Shepherds
L'Adoration des bergers
1596-1600
Muzeul National de Arta, Bucharest

51. this picture, of very high quality, repeats features
of a painting done for Juan de Ribera, patriarch of Antioch
and archbishop of Valencia
El Greco
The Adoration of the Shepherds
L'Adoration des bergers
c. 1610
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York