The Assumption of the Virgin

El Greco’s "Assumption of the Virgin" was the central element in his first major Spanish commission, a complex of paintings for the church of the Cistercian convent of Santo Domingo el Antiguo in Toledo. Set at the center of the lower story of a huge retable that filled the end of the sanctuary, the "Assumption" was flanked by paintings of single saints and crowned by a depiction of the Trinity. Side altars with pictures of the Resurrection and the Adoration of the Shepherds completed the complex. The space before the high altar contained the tombs of the church’s donor, Doña Maria de Silva, and of Don Diego de Castilla, dean of the cathedral of Toledo, who commissioned the work. The triumphant program of the retable reflected their hope of salvation. El Greco, who had previously worked on a much smaller scale, proudly attached his signature in Greek at the lower right: “Domenikos Theotokopoulos, Cretan, displayed this 1577.”