Between 1586 and 1588, El Greco painted this enormous canvas illustrating the miracle that occurred in 1323, when St. Stephen and St. Augustine of Hippo descended from Heaven to personally bury Gonzalo Ruiz de Toledo, Lord of Orgaz, highlighting the goodness of the Count.
Heaven and Earth
The spirituality of Toledo at the time influenced El Greco, who came from Venice, where the influence of secularism in the arts was evident. This painting, which can be seen in Santo Tomé Church, represents the two dimensions of human existence: the Earth below, death, and Heaven above, eternal life.
El Greco depicts in the painting the christian horizon of life after death, illuminated by Jesus Christ. The two worlds are clearly differentiated by the style and the use of light and colour.
The luminosity in the upper part of the painting reflects the clear influence of the Venetian school on El Greco’s painting. This luminosity contrasts especially with the lower half of the painting, which represents the earthly. Heaven, painted in the style of the Eastern iconographic tradition, is filled with the light emanating from the central figure: Jesus Christ. The Virgin Mary to his right and Saint John the Baptist to his left appear within the triangle of light that radiates from him, while the rest of the figures in the celestial sphere are more illuminated the closer they are to Jesus Christ.
Here we also find an abundance of shades: blues, reds, greens, ochres… In contrast, in the terrestrial sphere there is an almost total absence of light; a dark world illuminated only by the six torches held aloft by some of the figures present at the burial. Similarly, there is a notable absence of colour, which is almost exclusively restricted to the use of blacks and greys.
There is only one discordant note with respect to all that has been described: the two figures holding the deceased, St. Stephen and St. Augustine, dressed in gold and red dalmatics (symbol of martyrdom) and golden mitre and chasuble, respectively. With this illumination, El Greco manages not only to show us the differences between the two worlds, differences that can only be overcome by means of the Cross, the only way of union between the two, as represented by the cross on the right, but also to draw our attention primarily to Heaven and not to Earth, according to christian thought, in which the goal is Christ.
El Greco chose the style of the flemish school, very sober and realistic, to convey the religious spirit of the time in the earthly part of the painting. Through the faces of the figures, all of them noble contemporaries of his own, El Greco depicts the attitude of man towards death in different ways: some meditating, others weeping, others commenting on the event among themselves. Finally, some of them realise the miracle when the body rises to Glory.
This work establishes a direct connection with the viewer, as other figures look directly ahead, such as Greco himself or his son, Jorge Manuel.
Special care is taken to depict the figures in the clothing of the period, reflecting the social rank of each one. Thus, the Lord of Orgaz is dressed in the armour of a castilian knight, and the nobility and clergy according to their period. In it we can appreciate the care in the details, seeing St. Stephen reflected in the brightness of the chest or the elegant finishing touches of the armour.
In the chasuble of St. Stephen we can appreciate the influence of painters such as Titian, in the loose brushstrokes and the red colour. Other details of the chasuble, such as the depiction of the martyrdom, are influenced by Michelangelo’s anatomical studies.
Death
Halfway between Heaven and Earth we find an angel carrying in his hands a kind of foetus or chrysalis, symbol of the soul of Lord of Orgaz, entering through clouds that resemble a mother’s womb. In this way, death is presented not as an end but as a beginning, a birth to eternal life. Death is a birth to the afterlife.
A hopeful and faith-filled vision. Furthermore, the composition of the painting suggests the pictorial account of the office of the Dead, in which there is a psalm that says: “the angels will carry you to Paradise, the martyrs will welcome you on your arrival”.
The Judgement
Jesus Christ appears as the judge of the arriving soul, emphasising the serenity of his face, his peace, which suggests a trial in which mercy will play a major role in the verdict.
The clear byzantine influence can be seen in the depiction of Christ as a pantocrator, a detail that is repeated in other works by El Greco.
The Virgin Mary and Saint John the Baptist intervene as advocates defending the soul. Jesus Christ, with his hand, indicates to Saint Peter, on his right, accompanied by St. John the Evangelist, to open the gates of Heaven to the soul of his faithful servant. The treatment of the trial and death is surprising for the absence of fear and sadness conveyed by the painting, where hope is the dominant tone.
