San Bernardino de Siena

San Bernardino of Siena (c. 1603–04) in the Prado depicts the fifteenth-century Franciscan preacher whose passionate reform campaigns transformed the mendicant order. El Greco renders Bernardino with the elongated figure style and intense spiritual presence of his mature Toledo work — the saint tall, thin, visionary, holding his characteristic emblem of the IHS sun disc that he used as a focal point for his preaching on the Holy Name. The Holy Name of Jesus, which Bernardino championed as an object of devotion, connects this image to the broader program of Name-of-Jesus devotion that El Greco had explored in his Adoration of the Name paintings. Bernardino's stern reformist spirit resonated with the Counter-Reformation climate in which El Greco worked.

El Greco's characteristic elongated figure and flickering brushwork create an impression of spiritual fire. The limited palette of browns and ochres focuses attention on the saint's gaunt, ecstatic face and the luminous IHS monogram he holds.