“The Adoration of the Shepherds” by El Greco

“The Adoration of the Shepherds” by El Greco depicts a traditional subject that El Greco returned to during the last year of his life. El Greco made this painting to hang over his tomb in a church in Toledo.

The elongation of the bodies characterizes this masterpiece, as it did, all of the pictures of El Greco’s last years in Toledo, Spain.

The infant Christ emits a light that plays off the faces of the witnesses who have gathered to pay homage to his birth.

The contrasts between light and dark promote the sense of drama, as do the group of angels that hover over the scene in tribute to the infant Christ.

Doménikos Theotokópoulos, widely known as El Greco, Spanish for “The Greek,” was a painter, sculptor, and architect of the Spanish Renaissance.

The artist frequently signed his paintings with his full birth name in Greek letters, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος (Doménikos Theotokópoulos), often adding the word Κρής (Krēs, “Cretan”).

He is best known for elongated figures and for marrying Byzantine traditions with those of Western painting.

El Greco was born in Crete, which at that time was part of the Republic of Venice and the center of Post-Byzantine art.

He trained and became a master Byzantine art before traveling to Venice to work; then he moved to Rome, where he opened a workshop and executed a series of works.

In 1577, he moved to Toledo, Spain, where he lived and worked until his death. In Toledo, El Greco received several major commissions and produced his best-known paintings.

El Greco’s style was met with puzzlement by his 16th-century contemporaries, but he found greater appreciation in modern times and is today regarded as a precursor of both Expressionism and Cubism.

His works were a source of inspiration for poets and writers, and he is considered, as an artist, so individual that he belongs to no conventional school.

The Nativity of Jesus in Art

Depictions of the birth of Jesus as celebrated at Christmas, are based on the narratives in the Bible and influenced by oral, artistic and written traditions. Christian art includes a great variety of representations of the “Madonna and Child.”

The Nativity has been depicted in both pictorial and sculptural forms. Graphic forms include murals, panel paintings, manuscript illuminations, stained glass windows, and oil paintings.

The Nativity scene is also used for altarpieces, many of these combining sculptural painted elements. Sculptural representations of the Nativity also include ivory or wooden miniatures, carved sarcophagi, and architectural sculptures.

The Adoration of the Shepherds

Title: The Adoration of the Shepherds
Artist: El Greco
Year: 1612 – 1614
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: Height: 319 cm (10.4 ft); Width: 180 cm (70.8 ″)
Museum: Prado Museum, Museo del Prado

El Greco

Name: El Greco – “The Greek”
Greek: Doménikos Theotokópoulos
Birth: 1541 – Heraklion, Crete
Died: 1614 (aged 73) – Toledo, Spain
Nationality: Greek
Movement: Mannerism
Notable works:
- The Holy Trinity
- Saint Jerome
- The Repentant Saint Peter
- The Tears of Saint Peter
- Saint Jerome as Scholar
- Saint Jerome Penitent
- Saint Jerome as Scholar (MET)
- View of Toledo (Met)
- The Adoration of the Shepherds
- Saint Martin and the Beggar

El Greco, Adoration of the Shepherds (1614)

A Tour of the Prado Museum

“Las Meninas” or “The Ladies-in-Waiting” by Diego Velázquez
“The Triumph of Bacchus” by Diego Velázquez
“Christ Falling on the Way to Calvary” by Raphael
“The Triumph of Death” by Pieter Bruegel the Elder
“Saturn Devouring His Son” by Francisco Goya
“The Third of May 1808” by Francisco Goya
“The Judgment of Paris” by Peter Paul Rubens
“Adam and Eve” by Peter Paul Rubens
“The Holy Trinity” by El Greco
“The Adoration of the Shepherds” by El Greco
“Self-Portrait with Gloves” by Albrecht Dürer
“The Surrender of Breda” by Diego Velázquez
“Christ Crowned with Thorns” by Anthony van Dyck
Masterpieces of the Prado Museum

Did you know?

El Greco’s signature, in Greek, may be seen in the lower-left corner of this painting.
King Philip of Spain did not like the result of the first commission he gave to El Greco, so he offered no further commissions to El Greco. The exact reasons for the king’s dissatisfaction remain unclear. Lacking the favor of the king, El Greco stayed in Toledo instead of Madrid, where he was more highly regarded.