Opening of the Fifth Seal

El Greco painted the Opening of the Fifth Seal (also known as the Vision of Saint John) around 1608-14, one of his last and most visionary works. The painting depicts the apocalyptic vision from the Book of Revelation in which martyred souls cry out for divine justice. Originally the lower portion of a much larger altarpiece for the church of San Juan Bautista extra muros in Toledo, the painting deeply influenced 20th-century artists, particularly Picasso.

The composition is dominated by ecstatic, elongated nude figures reaching upward in dynamic, swirling poses. El Greco's palette of spectral blues, greens, and flesh tones creates a hallucinatory atmosphere that pushes religious painting toward pure expressionism.