The Disrobing of Christ (Lyon, half version)

El Greco finished his great Disrobing of Christ for the sacristy of Toledo Cathedral around 1579, and it caused an argument at once. The clergy complained that the crowd loomed above Christ's head, against the decorum of the subject. They lost, the picture stayed, and it became one of the most copied images in Spain, with more than a dozen versions surviving, some from El Greco's own workshop and others by hands now unknown. This reduced painting in Lyon is one of them, holding the packed crush of soldiers and the figure of Christ in deep red at its centre. The original still hangs in Toledo, in the same sacristy it was made for.