Saint Peter and Saint Paul (El Greco, Barcelona) Saint Peter and Saint Paul (El Greco, Barcelona) Saint Peter and Saint Paul is a painting by the Cretan-Spanish artist El Greco. The work was completed between 1590 and 1600. It is currently on display at the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, who purchased the work in 1932. El Greco completed "Saint Peter and Saint Paul" between 1590 and 1600, while living in Toledo, Spain. Returning to a theme he had previously painted in a work now in the Hermitage, the painting depicts saints Peter and Paul, two of the Apostles of Jesus. According to the guide of the Museu
El Greco study Velásquez, but instead becoming fascinated by El Greco; he recorded his experiences in "Spanische Reise" ("Spanish Journey", published in English in 1926), the book which widely established El Greco as a great painter of the past "outside a somewhat narrow circle". In El Greco's work, Meier-Graefe found foreshadowing of modernity. These are the words Meier-Graefe used to describe El Greco's impact on the artistic movements of his time: To the English artist and critic Roger Fry in 1920, El Greco was the archetypal genius who did as he thought best "with complete indifference to what effect the right expression