This is a smaller version of an altarpiece by El Greco painted for the chapel in Santo Domingo el Antiguo in Toledo, where he was buried (the picture is now in the Prado, Madrid). It is likely that for this work the painter was helped by his assistants.

Forthcoming

Inscription: Signed (lower left, in Greek): Domenikos Theotokopoulos / made this [largely illegible because of an old tear]

Marqués del Arco, Madrid (in 1908); ?[Durand-Ruel, Paris]; George Blumenthal, New York (by 1916–d. 1941; cat., vol. 1, 1926, pl. LIV)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Spanish Paintings from El Greco to Goya," February 17–April 1, 1928, no. 25 (lent by George Blumenthal).

Brooklyn Museum. "Exhibition of Spanish Painting," October 4–31, 1935, no. 31 (lent by George Blumenthal).

New York. M. Knoedler & Co.. "El Greco Loan Exhibition," January 17–February 15, 1941, no. 12.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces in the Collection of George Blumenthal," 1943, no. 24.

Toledo Museum of Art. March 9–April 13, 1947, no catalogue.

Dallas Museum of Fine Arts. "30 Masterpieces: An Exhibition of Paintings from the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art," October 4–November 23, 1947, unnumbered cat.

Iowa City. State University of Iowa, School of Fine Arts. "30 Masterpieces: An Exhibition of Paintings from the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art," January 9–March 31, 1948, unnumbered cat.

Bloomington. Indiana University. "30 Masterpieces: An Exhibition of Paintings from the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 18–May 16, 1948, no catalogue.

Louisville. J. B. Speed Art Museum. "Old Masters from the Metropolitan," December 1, 1948–January 23, 1949, no catalogue.

Madison. Memorial Union Gallery, University of Wisconsin. "Old Masters from the Metropolitan," February 15–March 30, 1949, unnumbered cat.

Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. "Old Masters from the Metropolitan," April 24–June 30, 1949, no catalogue.

Palm Beach. Society of the Four Arts. "European Masters of the XVII and XVIII Centuries," January 13–February 5, 1950, no. 22.

Utica, N.Y. Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute. "Picture of the Month," January 7–29, 1951, no catalogue.

Detroit Institute of Arts. "Thirty-Eight Great Paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," October 2–October 28, 1951, no catalogue.

Art Gallery of Toronto. "Thirty-Eight Great Paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," November 14–December 12, 1951, no catalogue.

City Art Museum of St. Louis. "Thirty-Eight Great Paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," January 6–February 4, 1952, no catalogue.

Seattle Art Museum. "Thirty-Eight Great Paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," March 1–June 30, 1952, no catalogue.

Milwaukee Art Institute. "5 Centuries of Spanish Art," September 5–October 25, 1952, no. 10.

Syracuse, N.Y. Syracuse University. "Spanish Art: Fifteenth Century to Modern," November 10–December 1, 1952, no. 5.

Milwaukee Auditorium. "Metropolitan Art Museum $1,000,000 Masterpiece Exhibition," March 7–14, 1953, unnumbered cat. (p. 8).

Austin, Tex. City Coliseum. "Texas Fine Arts Festival: Metropolitan Museum $1,000,000 Collection of Old Masters," April 18–26, 1953, unnum. checklist.

Scottsdale. Arizona Art Association. "Paintings from the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art," February 22–March 21, 1954, no catalogue.

Buffalo. Albright-Knox Art Gallery. "Paintings from the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 15–June 2, 1954, unnumbered cat.

Southampton, N.Y. Parrish Art Museum. "Paintings from the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art," July 22–August 18, 1954, unnumbered cat.

Columbus, Ohio. Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts. "Masterpieces of Spanish Painting," October 8–November 14, 1954.

Delaware, Ohio. Ohio Wesleyen University. "Masterpieces of Spanish Painting," November 17–24, 1954, no catalogue.

Lynchburg, Va. Lynchburg Art Center. December 13, 1954–January 4, 1955, no catalogue.

Winnipeg Art Gallery. "El Greco to Goya," April 16–May 15, 1955, no. 1.

Decatur, Ga. Agnes Scott College. November 15–December 15, 1955, no catalogue.

New York. American Federation of the Arts. February 1–May 31, 1958, no catalogue.

Fort Wayne, Ind. Fort Wayne Art School and Museum. November 29, 1960–January 8, 1961, no catalogue.

Little Rock. Arkansas Arts Center. "Five Centuries of European Painting," May 16–October 26, 1963, unnumbered cat. (p. 19).

Memphis. Brooks Memorial Art Gallery. December 1, 1963–January 1, 1964, no catalogue.

Jacksonville, Fla. Cummer Gallery of Art. "700 Years of Spanish Art," October 28–November 30, 1965, no. 20.

Bordeaux. Galerie des Beaux-Arts. "Profil du Metropolitan Museum of Art de New York: de Ramsès à Picasso," May 15–September 1, 1981, no. 102.

San Diego. San Diego Museum of Art. "5000 Years of Art from the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art," October 10–December 6, 1981, no. 47.

Champaign-Urbana. Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois. "5000 Years of Art from the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art," January 10–March 7, 1982, no. 47.

Mobile, Ala. Fine Arts Museum of the South. "5000 Years of Art from the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art," March 30–May 9, 1982, no. 47.

Midland, Mich. Midland Center for the Arts. "5000 Years of Art from the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art," June 13–August 25, 1982, no. 47.

Little Rock. Arkansas Arts Center. "5000 Years of Art from the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 19–November 14, 1982, no. 47.

Athens. National Gallery Alexandros Soutzos Museum. "From El Greco to Cézanne: Masterpieces of European Painting from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York," December 13, 1992–April 11, 1993, no. 4.

Athens. Museum of Cycladic Art. "El Greco & su taller," October 16, 2007–January 6, 2008, no. 28.

Manuel B. Cossío. El Greco. Madrid, 1908, vol. 1, p. 565, no. 86, as in the collection of the Marqués del Arco, Madrid; dates it about 1594–1604; notes the similarity between this painting and the version from the altar in Santo Domingo el Antiguo, Toledo [now Museo del Prado, Madrid].

August L. Mayer. "Paintings by El Greco in America, Part Two." Art in America 4 (1916), pp. 311–17, ill., calls this picture "an artistic elaboration" of the version in The Royal Gallery, Bucharest; notes that the figure of the shepherd on the left derives from the "Feast in the House of Simon" [two versions, now The Art Institute of Chicago and Private Collection, Havana]; the angel with the ribbon derives from the Bucharest painting; both the angel with its back turned and the Virgin are repeated later in his unfinished Immaculate Conception, Nemes Collection (Budapest), and the Virgin also appears in the Annunciation in St. Nicholas, Toledo .

Elizabeth du Gué Trapier. El Greco. New York, 1925, p. 156 .

August L. Mayer. Dominico Theotocopuli, El Greco. Munich, 1926, pp. 4, 6–7, no. 21a, ill., as a somewhat later repetition of the picture in the attic of Santo Domingo El Antiguo, Toledo [now Prado, Madrid].

Stella Rubinstein-Bloch. "Paintings—Early Schools." Catalogue of the Collection of George and Florence Blumenthal. 1, Paris, 1926, unpaginated, pl. 54.

F. de B. San Román. "De la vida del Greco (Nueva serie de documentos inéditos)." Archivo español de arte y arqueología 3 (1927), p. 293, identifies it with no. 72 in Jorge Manuel's 1621 inventory, "un nazimiento, del mesmo alto i ancho [de bara y quarta de alto y tres quartas de ancho]" [about 44 1/4 x 24 3/4 in.].

M. Legendre and A. Hartmann. Domenikos Theotokopoulos, called El Greco. Paris, 1937, pp. 118, 504, ill., as from his "last period–1594–1604".

30 Masterpieces: An Exhibition of Paintings from the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., Dallas Museum of Art. Dallas, 1947, unpaginated, ill. (color, overall on cover and detail).

José Camón Aznar. Dominico Greco. Madrid, 1950, vol. 2, p. 1358–59, no. 57, fig. 571, disagrees with San Ramon's identification of this picture as no. 72 in Jorge Manuel's 1621 inventory and identifies it as no. 11, "Un nazimiento, de bara y terzia de alto y dos terzias de ancho" [about 48 x 24 in.].

Metropolitan Art Museum $1,000,000 Masterpiece Exhibition. Exh. cat., Milwaukee Auditorium. Milwaukee, 1953, p. 8, ill. p. 8 and installation view, states that it most closely resembles the version in Valencia and claims both are variants of the painting in the Prado; dates both our painting and the one from Valencia to "well after 1600".

El Greco to Goya. Exh. cat., Winnipeg Art Gallery. Winnipeg, 1955, p. 9, no. 1, pl. 1.

Harold E. Wethey. El Greco and His School. Princeton, 1962, vol. 2, pp. 26, 167, no. X–7, calls it Workshop of El Greco and dates it about 1612–14; classifies it as belonging to Type V, in which the composition of the Valencian painting is reversed with larger and more elongated figures.

Manuel B. Cossío. El Greco. definitive ed. Barcelona, 1972, p. 357, no. 22, fig. 62, cites it as an intermediate work between (MMA 05.42) and the version in the Prado.

Katharine Baetjer. "El Greco." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 39 (Summer 1981), pp. 30–31, ill. (color).

Deborah Krohn et al. in From El Greco to Cézanne: Masterpieces of European Painting from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Exh. cat., National Gallery Alexandros Soutzos Museum. Athens, 1992, pp. 12, 306, no. 4, ill. (color) [catalogue section unpaginated], dates it about 1612–14; claims this is a smaller version of the painting in the Prado; suggests upper portion of the canvas with angels may have resembled the now missing section of "The Vision of Saint John" (MMA 56.48).

José Álvarez Lopera. El Greco: La obra esencial. [Madrid], [1993], pp. 19, 294.

Fernando Marías. Greco: Biographie d'un peintre extravagant. Paris, 1997, p. 294, discusses it with three late versions of the subject; considers the earliest to be the painting in the Church of Our Lady, Aragon, followed by the painting in Valencia, and calls ours the latest.

José Manuel Pita Andrade in El Greco: Identity and Transformation; Crete, Italy, Spain. Exh. cat., Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid. Milan, 1999, pp. 157, 411, 422.

José Álvarez Lopera in El Greco & su taller. Exh. cat., Museum of Cycladic Art. Athens, 2007, pp. 276–77, 370–71, no. 28, ill. (color).