The Adoration of the Shepherds (El Greco, Madrid) The Adoration of the Shepherds (El Greco, Madrid) The Adoration of the Shepherds is a painting of the traditional subject which was painted during the last year of El Greco's life. The painting is a work which the artist made to hang over his own tomb in the church of Santo Domingo el Antiguo in Toledo. El Greco's signature, in Greek, may be seen in the lower left corner. Extreme distortion of body characterizes the "Adoration of the Shepherds" like all the last paintings of El Greco.The infant Christ seems to emit a light which plays off the faces of
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