The Baptism of Christ

This large canvas of the Baptism of Christ was begun by El Greco and completed by his son, Jorge Manuel Theotocópuli. It was intended for one of the altarpieces in the Hospital of Tavera, the last great group begun by El Greco and commissioned by Pedro Salazar de Mendoza.

The canvas depicts the biblical episode in which Jesus arrives on the banks of the Jordan and asks his cousin John to baptise him. Because of its importance, this episode appears in all four canonical gospels.

According to the Gospels, after Jesus had been baptised in the waters of the Jordan, the heavens opened and the Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove and rested on him, while a voice from heaven said: "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:16-17).

In this work, El Greco depicts the moment when Saint John pours water over Jesus' head, together with the joyful rejoicing of God the Father.

The angel on the left wears a yellow-green tunic and covers the unfinished figure of Christ with a red cloth with orange highlights.

The angels in the central group wear yellow. One of them presents Christ with a blue cloth, also held by the angel on the right, who wears a red tunic.

Christ, kneeling and surrounded by angels...

...receives baptism from the hands of Saint John.

In the centre of the composition, the Holy Spirit descends in the form of a dove.

On his right, a child appears, perhaps representing the Christian soul and symbolising the rebirth of man after baptism.

In the upper part, God the Father rests his left hand on a crystal ball, surrounded by angels and cherubs.

The upper part - of excellent quality - must be the work of El Greco, while the hand of Jorge Manuel is revealed in the lower part.

El Greco believed that his art should deal with the impossible, so it is clear that he was hired not only as a translator of religious texts into textual images, but also for his own formal and transformative abilities.

Hence the 'intrusion' of the angel in the foreground, between Christ and St John, which has no historical, textual or doctrinal justification.