My first response to the work of El Greco's View of Toledo, Spain 1597-1599, made me think of medieval times. I had a visual of a row of knights riding on horses up a mountain to a castle where they will be in some type of battle to conquer and take over the land.
             The most breathtaking part of the piece is the darkness that covers the canvas almost like an evil spirit lurking from above. The wind appears as if it were whipping across the plain hitting you squarely in the face as you look across the river and towards the mysterious city above. The dark clouds and the dreary sky lets me visualize that the Gods from above are in such a rage and is causing the sky such turmoil.
             The unique landscape is not just a View of Toledo, neither is it Toledo at night or Toledo in a storm, but Toledo gave a universal meaning a spiritual portrait of the town. The surroundings of the painting would most likely be seen at a bourgeois house. The idea behind this landscape was to announce the city's greatness. Today, the mystery of the value could be revealed in a museum. However, these bold color schemes lose much of their impact, where the colors were different from the realist conception of nature.
             The touches of light and shade in the landscape are manipulated with oil paint. The oil paint contributes the form of the work, which is nearest to us in the impressionistic style. The landscape is refreshed with water flowing beneath the bridge. The grass from the hills is fertile and green, the far distant landscape, lacking plant life. The oil paint disregards the structure of objects and is content with the simple appearance. I think if the painting were larger it would lose its impact of having such a frightening image and serious concept. A larger image would also be difficult to visualize, losing its main purpose of El Greco's View of Toledo as a whole to the viewer.
             The lines aim at a pattern on the surface and only the colo...