View of Toledo - El Greco (c. 1598-1600)

El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos)

Oil on canvas

Metropolitan Museum of Art

This dramatic landscape captures Toledo, Spain, under churning storm clouds with luminous green hills below—one of only two surviving landscapes by El Greco, who was born Domenikos Theotokopoulos in Crete in 1541 and spent most of his career in his adopted Spanish city. The Greek-born artist deliberately rearranged the city's architecture, moving the cathedral to give prominence to key landmarks, creating what art historians call a "spiritual portrait" rather than a documentary view. With its moody skies ranked alongside Van Gogh's Starry Night among the greatest sky depictions in Western art, this masterpiece exemplifies El Greco's unique fusion of Byzantine, Venetian, and Spanish influences that would later inspire Expressionists and Cubists alike.