At the Prado Museum reunited, for the first time since 1830, a nucleus of El Greco's earliest works in Spain

From February 18 to June 15, 2025, the Prado Museum presents an exceptional event that allows visitors to admire an extraordinary nucleus of the earliest works by El Greco (Domínikos Theotokópoulos, Candia, Crete, 1541 - Toledo, 1614) in Spain: the reunion of eight of the nine works El Greco created for the church of the Monastery of Santo Domingo el Antiguo in Toledo. For the first time since 1830, these works, dispersed in different collections, will be exhibited together in the Central Gallery of the Villanueva building, thanks to the sponsorship of the Friends of the Prado Museum Foundation and the curatorship of Leticia Ruiz, head of the Spanish Renaissance Painting Collection.

The centerpiece of the exhibition is The Assumption, the monumental central altarpiece of the high altar, since 1906 part of the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago. The work was acquired in 1830 by Prince Sebastián Gabriel and, after the confiscation of his collection in 1836, was transferred to the Trinidad Museum. After recovering his possessions in 1859, Sebastián Gabriel took his collection with him into exile in Pau, France. After his death, his collection was dispersed among his heirs, who loaned the Assumption to the Prado Museum in 1902 to be part of the first exhibition devoted to El Greco. In 1904, the work was acquired by Parisian dealer Paul Durand-Ruel. It was then Nancy Atwood Sprague who purchased it and later donated it to the Art Institute of Chicago, where it remains today.

In the exhibition at the Prado, The Assumption will be displayed alongside the two works of this altarpiece preserved in the collection of the Prado Museum, those still in Santo Domingo el Antiguo, and those in other collections.

In mid-1577, shortly after his arrival in Spain, El Greco obtained two important commissions: The Spoliation for the cathedral of Toledo and the making of the three altarpieces for the Cistercian monastery of Santo Domingo el Antiguo, one of the oldest monasteries in the city, which from 1579 had a new church in the Classicist style. To create the main altarpiece and two side altarpieces for the church, Don Diego de Castilla, dean of the cathedral, commissioned the painter at the suggestion of his son Luis, who had met him in Rome in 1571 at the Palazzo Farnese.

The artist was called upon to design not only the three altarpieces, but also the five sculptures that crowned the main one and eight large paintings. The conception of the entire complex involved the renewal of the traditional Castilian altarpiece. In the center of the main altarpiece was The Assumption, around which were arranged the figures of St. John the Baptist, St. John the Evangelist, St. Bernard and St. Benedict; in the upper part stood out The Trinity, while years after the inauguration of the church, the wooden coat of arms above the central painting was covered by the Holy Face, also by El Greco.

Completed in 1579, this extraordinary work consecrated El Greco as a distinguished painter, capable of creating large-scale works, laden with Italian reminiscences in both figurative models and colors and workmanship.

Pictured, El Greco’s The Assumption in the display at the Prado Museum (oil on canvas; Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago; gift of Nancy Atwood Sprague)

At the Prado Museum reunited, for the first time since 1830, a nucleus of El Greco's earliest works in Spain

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