Saint Anthony of Padua

El Greco painted this around 1580, a few years after settling in Toledo, the Spanish cathedral city where he would spend the rest of his life. He had come a long way to get there, born on Crete and trained first as a Greek icon painter, then years in Venice and Rome absorbing Titian, Tintoretto and Michelangelo. All of that shows here in the loose, quick brushwork and the storm-dark sky. Saint Anthony holds his usual attributes, a flowering lily and an open book, and along the edge of the book El Greco signed his name in Greek letters, the script of his birthplace. The small figure of the Christ Child on the book was added later to match the way the saint was more often shown.