L'orazione nell'orto

Toledo had been shrinking for 40 years by the time this was painted. Philip II settled his court at Madrid in 1561 and the old capital lost the business a court brings, though its churches and religious houses still commissioned pictures. El Greco stayed and supplied them, and this subject he supplied more than once. Versions of the same composition are in London, in Andujar in Andalusia, and in Toledo, Ohio. Lille dates its canvas to about 1600 to 1610. The three apostles asleep at the left are tucked inside a fold of rock that closes over them like a sheet. Far behind, small on the path, Judas is already coming up with the soldiers.