Spain Guide
Around Madrid
Santo Tomé
Address: A little way west of the cathedral
Opening time: Daily 10am–6.45pm, winter closes 5.45pm
Price: €2.30, free Wed after 4pm for EU citizens
El Greco's masterpiece, The Burial of the Count of Orgaz, is housed, alone, in a small annexe to the church of Santo Tomé. Depicting the count's funeral, at which SS Stephen and Augustine appeared in order to lower him into the tomb, it combines El Greco's genius for the mystic, exemplified in the upper half of the picture where the count's soul is being received into heaven, with his great powers as a portrait painter and master of colour.
The identity of the sombre-faced figures watching the burial has been a source of endless speculation. On two identities, however, there is universal agreement; El Greco painted himself seventh from the left looking out at the viewer, and his son in the foreground. Less certain are the identities of the rest of the mourners, but the odds are on for Felipe II's presence among the heavenly onlookers, even though he was still alive when it was painted. A search for the count's bones came to an end in early 2001 when they were unearthed from a tomb located, appropriately enough, directly below the painting.