The Virgin of Charity (El Greco) of the Virgin"). It updates the medieval iconography of the Virgin of Mercy. The central figure of the Virgin opens her cloak, sheltering a group of figures in then-fashionable ruffs, including the painter's son and other members of the Toledan aristocracy. The Virgin of Charity (El Greco) The Virgin of Charity (Spanish - "La Virgen de la Caridad") is a 1597-1603 painting by El Greco. It was part of a commission to paint five works for the high altarpiece of the Santuario de Nuestra Señora de la Caridad in the Spanish town of Illescas, Toledo, gained through the mediation of
El Greco by his contemporaries but found appreciation in the 20th century. El Greco is regarded as a precursor of both Expressionism and Cubism, while his personality and works were a source of inspiration for poets and writers such as Rainer Maria Rilke and Nikos Kazantzakis. El Greco has been characterized by modern scholars as an artist so individual that he belongs to no conventional school. He is best known for tortuously elongated figures and often fantastic or phantasmagorical pigmentation, marrying Byzantine traditions with those of Western painting. Born in 1541, in either the village of Fodele or Candia (the Venetian name