View of Toledo c. 1599 - 1600

El Greco painted this landscape, View of Toledo, with oil on canvas. The city is shrouded in ominous, swirling storm clouds in striking shades of greens and grays, and the buildings become spectral forms beneath the dramatic sky. El Greco's use of color and brushwork is highly expressive. The turbulent sky dominates the composition, its dark tones contrasting sharply with the bright greens of the landscape below. The artist's manipulation of perspective and scale distorts the landscape, lending it a dreamlike quality. The city itself seems to float between earth and sky, rendered with loose, fluid brushstrokes that dissolve its architectural details. El Greco’s aesthetic can be understood through a lens of Mannerism, which rejected naturalism in favor of emotional effect. This dramatic rendering of Toledo functions not merely as a depiction, but as a powerful expression of inner turmoil and spiritual intensity, questioning the nature of representation itself.