St. Francis in Prayer before the Crucifix

By the 1580s El Greco had settled for good in Toledo, the spiritual capital of a Spain that was pouring its energy into the Counter-Reformation, and the churches and convents around him wanted exactly this kind of picture: a saint kneeling alone, drawn into private prayer. Saint Francis became his most requested subject, and he and his workshop returned to him again and again. Here Francis kneels before a crucifix in the rocky hollow of La Verna, where he was said to have received the wounds of Christ, his brown habit tied with the three-knotted cord of the Franciscan vows. This version came from a convent of Discalced Carmelites at Cuerva, near Toledo. Scholars still argue over its exact date, placing it somewhere across the 1580s and after, and count it among the ones El Greco painted with his own hand.