The View of Toledo by El Greco - Essay Example

However, after moving into the Spanish town of Toledo in 1577, where he spent the rest of his life, a spiritual dimension entered his works and a sublime aura of divinity can be seen in all that he was commissioned to paint.AnalysisThe View of Toledo cannot be stared at or its significance understood in a single glance, for it is to be contemplated upon and the seemingly dark spectrum riot of colors should be twirled within the mind, just like how several concoctions of heady liquors are tossed into a smooth cocktail.

The storm that is about to break over the town is imminent with the deep spiritual force that seems to breach the heavens and take over the earth. There is an aesthetic element of how the lightning and thunder are not clearly seen or heard, yet brings about an electric tension over the horizon, where the sky is the darkest. The content of this painting may be a simple landscape, but to what extent the painter's imagination has been affected is clear in the perception of a deep mystery surrounding the emptiness of the town, and from the feeling of vastness and volume, of space and time, blending into the ethereal brink of an explosion.

There is a three-dimensional quality to the picture plane because of the richness in color tone gradually increasing from left to right. The spire of the cathedral extends towards the higher worlds, and it is as if the static electricity is dispersed by the spire to the surrounding mass of buildings. The chiaroscuros of the greenery on the hill, the level of detail in the architecture, and the surrealism of the skyline are breathtaking in all aspects.ConclusionIt might look like the painter had arrived in town just before the storm broke, and the feelings that surpassed his emotional threshold had left such a strong imprint, which was probably the reason why El Greco never left Toledo again till his death in 1614.

The visualization of the town from an aerial perspective shows the supra-mental creativity of the painter, which is best described in the analysis of the very same painting in Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage, "The painter had painted exactly what he saw, but he had seen with the eyes of the spirit. There was something unearthly in that city of pale grey. It was a city of the soul seen by a wan light that was neither that of night nor day It was a stronghold of God." (435)El Greco's work takes on a philosophical significance because of his ability to bring out the mystical and spiritual side of life, through simple subjects like landscapes and religious iconography.

This painting depicts a landscape which is not just ordinary scenery, but a visual metaphor of metaphysics and the soul; of performance and power not belonging to the realm of earth and mortal man, but imbibing the immortality of the spirit in man that can only be transcended through art.