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 in he was called the Greek (il Greco)" (comment of Giulio Cesare Mancini about El Greco in his "Chronicles", which were written a few years after El Greco's death). c. There is an ongoing dispute about El Greco's birthplace. Most researchers and scholars give Candia as his birthplace. Nonetheless, according to Achileus A. Kyrou, a prominent Greek journalist of the 20th century, El Greco was born in Fodele and the ruins of his family's house are still extant in the place where old Fodele was (the village later changed location because of pirate raids). Candia's claim to him is based