Portrait of Diego de Covarrubias y Leiva (El Greco) Portrait of Diego de Covarrubias y Leiva (El Greco) Portrait of Diego de Covarrubias y Leiva (Spanish: Retrato de Diego de Covarrubias y Leiva ) is a painting by El Greco, from 1600. It is an oil on panel 68 cm x 57 centimeters. It is on display at the El Greco Museum, Toledo in Spain. After his apprenticeship in Venice and Rome, El Greco, turned to the production of portraits, among which is this half-length bust on an undefined background. El Greco did not have to meet in person the theologian Diego de Covarrubias, he died the same year
Posthumous fame of El Greco that El Greco represents the beginning of the Spanish School was formulated for the first time in an allusive manner. The ruling ideology if the founders of the museum placed El Greco at the beginning of the Spanish School, and gave him more or less the title of its founder. In 1838 the A of Spanish painting was already El Greco while the Z was Goya. Nevertheless, Murillo, Velázquez, Ribera, Cano and Zurbarán were the painters to whom critics, artists and public referred reacted favorably to the Spanish Museum. Only a small élite preferred El Greco and Goya. With the