Art Institute of ChicagoPublic domain

The Assumption of the Virgin

Domenico Theotokópoulos, called El Greco · 1577–79

Provenance

Ownership history

Commissioned 1577 by Don Diego de Castilla for the convent church of Santo Domingo el Antiguo, Toledo; installed with other paintings in the main retable by September 1579; sold c. 1830 to the Infante Don Sebastián Gabriel de Borbón y Braganza (died 1875), Madrid and later Pau, France, but confiscated from him by the Spanish government and installed in the Museo Nacional de la Trinidad, Madrid, in 1835 [Lavice 1864 recorded that the Assumption was on display in the Museo Nacional de Pinturas, but this cannot be confirmed]; returned to Don Sebastián in 1861; his estate in custody of the Spanish government, 1875–87 [see María Teresa Baratech Zelama, “La testamentario del Infante Don Sebastián Gabriel de Borbón y Braganza,” Archivo español de arte 62 (1989), pp. 372–77 for the status of his estate]; his widow, the Infanta María Cristina de Borbón (died 1902), Aranjuez and Madrid; offered for sale, Madrid, October 1902, no. 2, but bought in, then lent by the Infanta’s heirs to the Museo del Prado, Madrid, 1902–04 [see Cossío 1908, p. 594, no. 279]; purchased from them by Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris, for 100,000 frs. ($17,000), October 1904, with funds provided by Henry O. Havemeyer, New York [see Havemeyer 1961, p. 155]; sold to the Art Institute, July 17, 1906.

Recorded by Art Institute of Chicago.

Exhibitions

Exhibition history

Pau, Salons de l'ancien Asile de Pau, Tableaux appartenant aux héritiers de feu Msg. l’Enfant don Sébastien de Bourbon et Bragance, September 1876, cat. 668.
Madrid, Museo Nacional de Pintura y Escultura, Exposición de las obras de Domenico Theotocópouli, llamado El Greco, April 30 - July 31, 1902, cat. 6.
Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress, June 1–November 1, 1933, cat. 169.
Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress, June 1–November 1, 1934, cat. 70.
Paris, Grand Palais, Greco, October 14, 2019–February 10, 2020, cat. 73; Art Institute of Chicago, El Greco: Ambition and Defiance, March 7–June 21, 2020, cat. 14.
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, El Greco. Santo Domingo el Antiguo, Feb. 18–June 15, 2025, cat. 1.

Literature

Published references

Antonio Palomino de Castro y Velasco, El museo pictórico y escala óptica, vol. 3: El Parnaso español pintoresco laureado (Madrid: Lucas Antonio Bedmar, 1724), chap. 57; repr., Madrid: M. Aguilar, 1947, 841.
Antonio Ponz, Viage de España: Cartas, en que se da noticia de las cosas mas apreciables, y dignas de saberse que hay en ella, vol. 1 (Madrid: Don Joachin Ibarra, 1772), 176; repr., Madrid: M. Aguilar, 1947, 78.
Juan Augustín Ceán Bermúdez, Diccionario historico de los más ilustres profesores de las bellas artes en España, vol. V (Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, Hijoys, y Compañia, 1800), 10.
S.S. Cook, Sketches in Spain during the years 1829, 30, 31, & 32; Containing notices of some districts very little known; of the manners of the people, government, recent changes, commerce, fine arts, and natural history, vol. 2 (London: T. and W. Boone, 1834), 158.
Nicolás Magan, “Biografía española: El Greco,” Seminario pintoresco español 2 (September 8, 1844): 285–86.
José Amador de los Rios, Toledo Pintoresca o Descripción de sus más célebres monumentos (Madrid: D. Ignacio Boix, 1845), 182; repr, Barcelona: El Albir, 1976.
Sisto Ramón Parro, Toledo en la mano, o descripción histórico-artística de la magnífica cathedral y de los demás célebres monumentos y cosas notables que encierra esta magnífica ciudad, Antigua Corte de España, vol. 2 (Toledo: Severiano López Fando, 1857), 114–16.
Louis Viardot, Les musées d'Espagne; guide et memento de l'artiste et du voyageur, suivis de notices biographiques sur les principaux peintres de l'Espagne, 3rd ed. (Paris: Hachette, 1860), 159.
Sebastían de Bourbon, Les huiles et des vernis employés pour la peinture Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1st ser., 15 (1863): 176.
A[ndré-Absinthe] Lavice, Revue des Musées d’Espagne. Catalogue reisonné des peintures et sculptures esposées dans les Galeries publiques et particulières et dans les églises (Paris: Vve. Jules Renouard, Libraire-Editeur, 1864), 225.
Catalogue abrégé des tableaux exposés dans les salons de l'ancien asile de Pau appartenant aux héritiers de feu Mgr l'Infant don Sébastien de Bourbon et Bragance (Paris: Veronese, 1876), 73 cat. 668.
Henry O'Shea, Guide to Spain and Portugal including the Balearic Islands, 3rd ed., (Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, 1868), 288–89.

Comparables