The Immaculate Conception (El Greco, Toledo) The Immaculate Conception (El Greco, Toledo) "The Virgin of the Immaculate Conception" is a painting of the Immaculate Conception by El Greco. The work on the painting began in 1607 and was completed in 1613. It is owned by the church of San Nicolás de Bari in Toledo. It is displayed, however, in the Museo De Toledo. El Greco immersed himself in the Italian Renaissance during his stay in Venice and Rome, which allowed him to experiment with the opposing "colore" and "disegno" techniques for size. Afterwards, El Greco relocated to Toledo in 1577, and this move signified the beginning
Posthumous fame of El Greco as a "mad painter" and, therefore, his "maddest" paintings were not admired but considered to be historical documents proving his "madness". During the operation of the Spanish Museum, El Greco became the ideal romantic hero, the gifted, the misunderstood, the marginal, the one who lost his reason because of the scorn of his contemporaries. The critics of "Courrier Français" and "La Presse" would retain the image of El Greco as a "mad painter". His "maddest" paintings were not admired but considered to be historical documents proving his "madness". In 1867, Paul Lefort, an expert on Spanish painting, dedicated an eight-page