L'Adoration du nom de Jésus

Eight years before El Greco made this, in 1571, a Christian alliance of Spain, Venice and the Pope smashed the Ottoman fleet at Lepanto, off the coast of Greece, in one of the last great battles fought under oar. This small, crowded picture is a thanksgiving for that victory. In the foreground Philip II of Spain, Pope Pius V and the Doge of Venice kneel in black before the glowing monogram of Jesus, while off to the right a whale-like mouth of Hell swallows the damned. El Greco had recently arrived in Toledo from Italy, still hunting for royal favour. This version is a compact trial run for a far larger canvas he made for Philip's palace-monastery at the Escorial.