Immaculate Conception by El Greco

The artistic style of the late El Greco is unique and dynamic. He is characterized by a clear movement from naturalism to mystical penetration. The artist’s craving for lengthening and distortion of human figures has increased, at the same time the sizes of the paintings themselves have changed: they have grown in height and “stung.” The colors of El Greco have become colder, and the light is even more dramatic. Increasingly, the lighting in the paintings of El Greco looked unearthly.

The manner of writing was, as it were, freed from the established rules, it was dominated by expression. The best example of these changes is the painting “Immaculate Conception,” written in 1607-13 for the Church of San Vicente in Toledo. In his book dedicated to the work of the artist, Philip Troutman wrote that this painting is “perhaps the most ecstatic in the whole history of painting.”