Saint Ildefonso

El Greco made this for the charity hospital and shrine at Illescas, just south of Toledo, and it has never left, still hanging where he meant it to. The man at the desk is Ildefonsus, a 7th-century bishop of Toledo, shown writing his defence of the Virgin Mary's perpetual virginity. He glances up toward a small statue of the Madonna for inspiration, and that figure is thought to be the Virgin of Charity kept in this very shrine. El Greco was in his late fifties when he took the commission, and the whole scene is drawn tight and close, more an intimate portrait of a thinking man than a grand church image.