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Christ on the Cross
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Christ on the Cross

El Greco (Spanish, 1541–1614), artist · c. 1600–1610 · oil on canvas

From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.

About this work

El Greco (Spanish for "the Greek") was trained on his native island, Crete, as a painter of small-scale devotional images (icons). In the late 1560s he moved first to Venice, where he may have worked with Tintoretto (1518-1594), and then to Rome. Finally, he settled in Toledo, Spain. Tintoretto's influence is visible here in the colors and in the elongated figural proportions. The graphic depiction of blood, however, may reflect the Spanish interest in Christ's sufferings as a subject for meditation.

Cleveland Museum of Art’s own description
Credit lineChrist on the Cross, c. 1600–1610. El Greco (Spanish, 1541–1614). Oil on canvas; framed: 221 x 144 x 10 cm (87 x 56 11/16 x 3 15/16 in.); unframed: 193 x 116 cm (76 x 45 11/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of the Hanna Fund, 1952.222

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