Holy Family (El Greco, Hospital de Tavera) Holy Family (El Greco, Hospital de Tavera) Holy Family is a 1595 oil on canvas painting by El Greco, painted during his time in Toledo and now in the Hospital de Tavera in that city. The work is very similar to those painted by the same artist during his stay in Rome. The artist frequently returned to the theme of the Holy Family. Though this work has similarities to his work on the same subject now in the Museum of Santa Cruz, he has omitted the infant John the Baptist, painted the Virgin as a nursing Madonna and altered the
El Greco painted in 1566),—which were brought into the group of early works of El Greco. El Greco is now seen as an artist with a formative training on Crete; a series of works illuminate his early style, some painted while he was still on Crete, some from his period in Venice, and some from his subsequent stay in Rome. Even Wethey accepted that "he [El Greco] probably had painted the little and much disputed triptych in the Galleria Estense at Modena before he left Crete". Nevertheless, disputes over the exact number of El Greco's authentic works remain unresolved, and the status