Saint Ildefonso of Toledo

Saint Ildefonso of Toledo (c. 1605–14) at the Royal Monastery of El Escorial depicts the patron saint of Toledo in one of El Greco's late works, the fully dematerialized figure style of his final years evident in the saint's elongated, ethereal form. Ildefonso — Archbishop of Toledo in the seventh century, whose treatise on the perpetual virginity of Mary earned him a miraculous apparition of the Virgin presenting him with a chasuble — was the most important local saint in El Greco's adopted city. This late version, painted when El Greco was approaching eighty, shows his style in its ultimate state: the figure barely anchored to physical reality, suffused with the same supernatural light that fills his last altarpieces.

The painting features El Greco's characteristic elongated proportions and upward-reaching composition. The rich vestments are painted with sumptuous detail, while the saint's inspired expression and dynamic pose convey visionary spiritual intensity.