El Greco been ideal for El Greco. Through Clovio and Orsini, El Greco met Benito Arias Montano, a Spanish humanist and agent of Philip; Pedro Chacón, a clergyman; and Luis de Castilla, son of Diego de Castilla, the dean of the Cathedral of Toledo. El Greco's friendship with Castilla would secure his first large commissions in Toledo. He arrived in Toledo by July 1577, and signed contracts for a group of paintings that was to adorn the church of Santo Domingo el Antiguo in Toledo and for the renowned . By September 1579 he had completed nine paintings for Santo Domingo, including
The Fable (El Greco) Elder's "Naturalis Historia". The Fable (El Greco) The Fable (Spanish - "La Fábula") is a 1580 allegorical painting by El Greco, produced early in his Toledan period and now in the Museo del Prado in Madrid. The light effects and use of colour show the influence of Jacopo Bassano, which the painter had picked up in Italy. It shows a monkey and a rogue flanking a boy blowing on an ember or taper. The central figure was a frequent theme for the artist (he had painted it a few years earlier as "El Soplón" for example), drawn from a story