Dormition of the Virgin
El Greco·1565
Historical Context
Dormition of the Virgin (c. 1565–66) in the Church of Agios Nikolaos, Syros, is one of El Greco's earliest known works, painted in the Byzantine-Cretan icon tradition before his departure for Venice. The Dormition — the 'falling asleep' of the Virgin, equivalent to the western Assumption — was one of the most important subjects in Eastern Orthodox iconography, with a compositional formula fixed by centuries of tradition. El Greco's version follows the Byzantine model closely: the Virgin lying on her bier, the apostles gathered around, Christ in the center holding her soul as a white-robed infant. The work provides essential evidence of El Greco's training and starting point before his transformation through Italian and Spanish experience.
Technical Analysis
The composition retains Byzantine iconographic conventions including the gold highlights and hierarchical arrangement, while emerging Western influences appear in the more naturalistic modeling of individual figures.
