Madonna and Child with Saint Martina and Saint Agnes

El Greco took this commission in Toledo in November 1597, for the chapel of Saint Joseph, a small church he was decorating almost single-handed. It was one of two tall canvases meant to flank the altar, so the figures are stretched upward to be read from below. The Virgin and Child float on cloud, and beneath them stand two early Christian martyrs, Agnes with her lamb and Martina, a Roman saint, with a small lion. By this point El Greco, a Greek who had trained in Venice before settling in Spain, had pushed his figures into the flickering, elongated forms his Toledo years are known for. The chapel sold the picture in 1906, and it eventually travelled to America.