Laocoön (El Greco) turmoil. The dark, sinister rocks of the foreground add to the intense emotional atmosphere. El Greco places the classical subject against a gloomy view of Toledo. El Greco’s use of Toledo as the backdrop for his depiction of Laocoön’s death may be based on local folklore that the people of Toledo descended from the Trojans. In the painting, the Trojan horse moves towards the city, a reminder of Laocoön’s failed attempt to convince his countrymen of the trap. El Greco portrays the city Toledo as a world of suffering, using color to create a sense of doom. The high horizon
Healing of the Man Born Blind (El Greco, Parma) Healing of the Man Born Blind (El Greco, Parma) Healing of the Man Born Blind is a c.1573 painting by El Greco, showing the healing the man blind from birth. It is now in the Galleria nazionale di Parma. It is signed at the bottom right-hand corner. It shows the artist returning to a theme he had first painted five years earlier, in a work now in Dresden. In the 17th century it is recorded as being in the Palazzo Farnese in Rome, as shown by a seal on its reverse. It was most probably commissioned directly from the artist