GRECO, El
(b. 1541, Candia, d. 1614, Toledo)

Pietà

c. 1575
Oil on canvas, 66 x 48 cm
The Hispanic Society of America, New York

This painting is a version of the Pietà in Philadelphia, varying the scale, colours and landscape. These Pietàs represent an important step towards El Greco's mature style, in which he was enabled by his experience of Venetian and Roman renaissance art to leave behind forever the artistic values of his provincial post-Byzantine heritage.