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 Greco was "the most extraordinary painter that ever came along back then" and that he was "maybe three or four centuries ahead of his time". Wethey asserts that El Greco "developed into an artist so individual that he belongs to no conventional school but is a lonely genius of unprecedented emotional power and imagination". El Greco's re-evaluation was not limited to scholars. According to Foundoulaki, "painters and theoreticians from the beginning of the 20th century 'discovered' a new El Greco but in process they also discovered and revealed their own selves". His expressiveness and colors influenced Eugène Delacroix and Édouard