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
El Greco and Paul Lefort helped to promote a widespread revival of interest in his painting. In the 1890s, Spanish painters living in Paris adopted him as their guide and mentor. However, in the popular English-speaking imagination he remained the man who "painted horrors in the Escorial" in the words of Ephraim Chambers' "Cyclopaedia" in 1899. In 1908, Spanish art historian Manuel Bartolomé Cossío published the first comprehensive catalogue of El Greco's works; in this book El Greco was presented as the founder of the Spanish School. The same year Julius Meier-Graefe, a scholar of French Impressionism, traveled in Spain, expecting to