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Close to us, six people, all nude with light skin, stand or lie intertwined with snakes on a bank of rocks in this horizonal painting. Beyond them, the deep, distant landscape has a brown horse, tiny in scale, headed for a city of stone buildings beneath a vivid blue sky filled with twisting white clouds. The people’s bodies are sinewy and elongated, and their skin is painted in tones of ivory white, warmed with peach highlights and streaked with deep gray shadows. At the center, a man with a white beard and white, curly hair lies back on the charcoal-gray rock with his knees bent and his shins splayed out. With his body angled away from us to our right, he holds the body of a long, silvery-gray snake in his left fist, on our right, down by his hip. The snake curves behind the man’s body and he grips the snake behind its head. The man has high cheekbones and sunken cheeks, and rolls his eyes up and back to look at the snake, whose wide-open mouth nearly touches his hair. To our left, a cleanshaven young man stands with his body facing us but he arches back, holding an arcing snake in his hands. The young man’s right hand, on our left, bends at the elbow so he can grasp the snake’s tail and his other arm stretches straight back, holding the snake’s body as it curls around so its fangs nearly reach the young man’s side. To our right, next to the older man, a second, dark-haired young man lies on the rocks with his head toward us. His feet are on the ground, so we look onto the tops of his thighs. He lies with one hand resting on the ground, overhead. Three people seem to float, feet dangling, alongside the right edge of the painting. The person closest to us looks onto the writhing people in profile, back to us. A second person just beyond also looks to our left. A third head turns the opposite direction and looks off to our right. In the distance, the golden-brown horse is angled away from us, one front leg raised, on a path that moves from behind the rocky outcropping to the far-off town. Nestled in a shallow valley, buildings in the town are mostly painted with rose pink and red walls and smoke-gray roofs. The land dips to a deeper, green valley to our right, lining the horizon that comes two-thirds of the way up the composition. The standing people are outlined against the sapphire-blue sky and knotted, gray and white clouds.

Laocoön, c. 1610/1614

El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos)

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 28

During the Trojan War, the priest Laocoön angered the Greek gods, who sent snakes to kill him and his two sons. The legend became popular after a monumental, ancient marble sculpture of Laocoön and his sons was unearthed in Rome in 1506.

Laocoön is El Greco’s only known mythological painting. He set the scene not in Greece, but in the city of Toledo, Spain, his adopted home. El Greco felt that art should engage the mind and not just copy nature. He used elongated, twisting figures, distorted space, and clashing colors to express emotions vividly.

Dive deeper

Widespread interest in the story of Laocoön, a mythical priest of Troy, developed after an ancient, monumental sculpture representing him and his two sons was unearthed in 1506 in Rome. Suspecting trickery, Laocoön had warned his countrymen not to accept the wooden horse left outside Troy by the Greeks and had hurled his spear at it to prove that it was hollow. Thus the priest incurred the wrath of the gods, for desecrating an object dedicated to the goddess Athena. El Greco depicted serpents, sent by the angry gods, engaging Laocoön and one son in a mortal struggle, while a second son lies already dead at his father's side. The identity of the unfinished figures on the right continues to be debated; perhaps they represent the gods themselves supervising their vengeance.

Utilizing every available means — writhing line, lurid color, and illogically conceived space — the artist projected an unrelieved sense of doom. The figures seem incorporeal; sinuous outlines and anti–natural flesh tones contribute to their specterlike appearance. The striking setting carries this visionary late work of El Greco to an apocalyptic extreme.

Did El Greco intend to relate this mythical theme of conflict and divine retribution to the Inquisition then raging in Toledo? Whatever the case, the story of Laocoön is the only classical theme he is known to have painted.

More information on this painting can be found in the Gallery publication Spanish Paintings of the Fifteenth through Nineteenth Centuries, which is available as a free PDF.

Object Data

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 137.5 × 172.5 cm (54 1/8 × 67 15/16 in.)

framed: 173.99 × 209.55 × 10.16 cm (68 1/2 × 82 1/2 × 4 in.)

Credit Line

Samuel H. Kress Collection

Accession Number

1946.18.1

Artists / Makers

El Greco (painter) Greek, 1541 - 1614

Image Use

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Detail Information

Inscription

unidentified inventory number at lower left: 104

Provenance

Probably in El Greco's possession at his death;[1] his son Jorge Manuel Theotócópuli, Toledo, in 1621.[2] The Infante Antonio María Felipe Luis de Orleáns, Duque de Montpensier [1824-1890], Seville;[3] by inheritance to his son, the Infante Don Antonio de Orleáns, Duque de Galliera, Sanlúcar de Barremada, Cádiz.[4] (Durand-Ruel, Paris) by 1910.[5] (Paul Cassirer, Berlin), by October 1915.[6] The pianist Edwin Fischer [1886-1960], Basel and Berlin, by 1923;[7] Eleanora Irme von Jeszenski von Mendelssohn, Berlin, who was divorced from Fischer in 1925, by 1926.[8] T.R.H. Prince and Princess Paul of Yugoslavia, Belgrade, Johannesburg, and Paris, by May 1934;[9] consigned 1946 by Prince Paul to (M. Knoedler and Co., London, Paris, and New York); sold February 1946 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[10] gift 1946 to NGA.

[1] The inventory made of the artist's estate in 1614 included two examples of "a small Laocoön" ("Un laocon pequeño) and one large painting of this subject ("Un laocon grande"). Francisco de Borja de San Román y Fernández, El Greco en Toledo, Madrid, 1910: 193. Because the measurements of the Kress painting correspond most closely to those of the smallest of the versions cited in the inventory of 1621 (see n. 2 below), it seems likely that the Kress painting was one of the two small versions recorded in 1614.

[2] The inventory made of the possessions of Jorge Manuel in 1621 includes the following items: "41 Un laocon, de dos baras de largo y bara y dos terzias de alto" ("A Laocoön of two varas in width and one and two-thirds of a vara in height"); "179 Un laocon grande, de tres baras y media en quadrado" ("A large Laocoön, three and one-half varas square"); "180 Otro laocon, casi del mismo Tamaño" ("Another Laocoön, almost the same size"); see Francisco de Borja de San Román y Fernández, "De la vida del Greco," Archivo Español de Arte y Arqueologia 3 (1927): 291, 301. Because a vara equals approximately 84 cm., the measurements of no. 41 correspond closely to those of the Kress painting. The difference in the numbers of large and small versions of the subject mentioned in the two inventories suggest that Jorge Manuel sold one of the two smaller paintings in his father's estate and that he or another artist in the workshop produced another large copy of the composition before 1621. Alternatively, a mistake may have been made in one of the inventories. Many previous scholars have maintained that the Kress painting was in the Spanish royal collection in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: Manuel B. Cossío, El Greco, Madrid, 1908: 362; Emilio H. del Villar, El Greco en España, Madrid, 1928: 132; Walter S. Cook, "El Greco's Laocoön in the National Gallery," Gazette des Beaux-Arts 26 (1944): 262, n. 1; José Camón Aznar, Domenico Greco , Madrid, 1950: 2:921; Harold E. Wethey, El Greco and His School, Princeton, 1962: 2:84, no. 127; Colin Eisler, Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian, Oxford, 1977: 198, no. K1413; William B. Jordan, El Greco of Toledo [exh. cat.] (1982-1983), 257, no. 56. However, it is likely that the royal inventories refer not to the Kress painting but to one of the larger versions cited in the 1621 inventory (nos. 179 and 180). The relevant entries are as follows: Alcázar, Madrid, Inventory of 1666, no. 520: "3 varas casi en quadro de Lauconte y sus hijos de mano del Greco en 300 dicadps de plata" ("3 varas, almost square, of Laocoön and his sons, by the hand of El Greco, at 300 silver ducados"). Harold E. Wethey, letter, 22 June 1969, NGA curatorial files. Alcázar, Madrid, Inventory of 1686, no. 310: "Un quadro de tres baras de largo casi quadrado de la Oconte y sus hijos de blanco y negro de mano del Griego, tiene Marco negro como las demas pinturas de esta pieza" ("A painting, three varas in width, almost square, of Laocoön and his sons, in white and black by the hand of El Greco, has a black frame like the other paintings in this room"). Yves Bottineau, "L'Alcázar de Madrid et l'inventaire de 1686: aspects de la cour d'Espagne au XVIIe siècle," Bulletin Hispanique 60 (1958), 164. Alcázar, Madrid, Inventory of 1701-1703, no. 119: "Un cuadro de tres varas de largo quasi quadrado de laoconte y sus hijos de blanco y negro de mano del Griego con marco negro tasado en cien Doblons" ("A painting three varas in width, almost square, of Laocoön and his sons, in white and black by the hand of El Greco, with a black frame valued at 100 doblones"). Gloria Fernández Bayton, ed., Inventarios reales: Testamentario del Rey Carlos II, 6 vols., Madrid, 1975-: 1:29. The dimensions given in all these inventories correspond to the now lost larger versions of the Laocoön but not to the Kress painting. The Kress painting has also been related to references in the royal inventories of 1701-1703 and 1791 to an approximately square painting of Laocoön, about two varas across, said to be a copy of Titian. The width of this painting approximates that of the Kress painting. However, it seems most unlikely that the Kress painting would have been described as a copy of Titian, especially because an original Laocoön by El Greco and the copy after Titian were recorded in the royal collections at the same time (Fernández Bayton 1975-, 1:29, no. 119; 2:324, no. 581). Spanish critics of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries carefully distinguished the styles of Titian and El Greco, and the compilers of the royal inventories probably would not have confused them. See, e. g. Antonio Palomino de Castro y Velasco, El Museo pictórico y escala óptica,1715 and 1724, reprint ed., Madrid, 1947: 841; and Antonio Ponz, Viaje de España, ed. C. María de Rivero, Madrid, 1947: 640.

[3] Catalogo de los cuadros y esculturas pertenecientes á la galeria de SS. AA. RR. los Serenísmos Señores Infantes de España, Duques de Montpensier, Seville, 1866: 44, no. 155.

[4] Manuel B. Cossío, El Greco, Madrid, 1908: 579, no. 162.

[5] Colin Eisler, 1977 (see n. 2 above), 198, 201, n. 163, no. K1413. On loan to the Alte Pinakothek, Munich, July 1911-1913. The ownership of the painting from 1911 to October 1915 is uncertain.

[6] Ludwig Burchard, "Werke alter Kunst aus Berliner Privatbesitzer," Kunst und Kunstler 13 (1915): 525. Recorded in 1914 and again in 1915 as on loan to the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, Berlin.

[7] "Die Zeit und der Markt: Sammlungen," Der Cicerone 15 (1923): 1156-1157; H. U. Schmid, "Über das Jahr 1923," Jahresbericht der öffentlichen Kunstsammlungen, Basel 20 (1923): 6; H. U. Schmid, "Über das Jahr 1924: Gemäldegalerie," Jahresbericht der öffentlichen Kunstsammlungen, Basel 21 (1924): 6.

[8] R. Riggenbach, "Über das Jahr 1926: Gemäldegalerie," Jahresbericht der öffentlichen Kunstsammlungen, Basel 23 (1926): 27; Otto Fischer, "Bericht über das Jahr 1928: Gemäldegalerie," Jahresbericht der öffentlichen Kunstsammlungen, Basel (1928): 6; Otto Fischer, "Bericht über das Jahr 1929," Jahresbericht der öffentlichen Kunstsammlungen, Basel (1929): 34. Basic biographical information about Fischer and Von Jeszenski von Mendelssohn is given in Neue Deutsche Biographie 5, Munich, 1961: 180. Walter S. Cook, "El Greco's Laocoön in the National Gallery," Gazette des Beaux-Arts 26 (1944): 262, n. 1, maintains that the Laocoön was purchased before 1914 by Fischer's wife, whom he misidentifies as Frau von Schwabach. Because this painting was owned by the dealer Cassirer in 1915, this supposition is unlikely. However, the painting may have been purchased by Fischer's wife before their marriage in 1919. Frau von Schwabach may possibly have been an earlier owner, unrelated to Fischer.

[9] The painting was on loan to the National Gallery, London, May 1934-December 1935; Kenneth Clark, "Report: National Gallery, 1935," National Gallery and Tate Gallery Directors' Reports 1935, London, 1935: 4. During the Second World War, Prince Paul, then resident in Johannesburg, arranged to have the painting at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, for safekeeping (David Edward Finley, A Standard of Excellence: Andrew W. Mellon Founds the National Gallery of Art at Washington, Washington, DC, 1973: 89).

[10] John Walker, Self Portrait with Donors, Boston, 1974: 144-146, presents a lively discussion of the negotiations involved in the sale. See also M. Knoedler & Co. Records, accession number 2012.M.54, Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles: Sales book No. 16; copy in NGA curatorial files. See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1223.

Associated Names

Durand-Ruel et Cie
El Greco
Fischer, Edwin
Galerie Paul Cassirer
Jeszenski von Mendelssohn, Eleanora Irme von
Knoedler & Company, M.
Kress Foundation, Samuel H.
Orleáns, Antonio María Felipe Luis de, The Infante
Orleáns, Don Antonio de, The Infante
Paul, of Yugoslavia, T. R. H. Prince and Princess
Theotocópuli, Jorge Manuel

Exhibition History

1910: Sonderausstellung El Greco, Alte Pinkothek, Munich, 1910.

1915: Werke alter Kunst aus Berliner Privatbesitzer, Paul Cassirer, Berlin, 1915.

1946: Recent Additions to the Kress Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1946, no. 885.

1961: Art Treasures for America: An Anthology of Paintings & Sculpture in the Samuel H. Kress Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1961-1962, no. 124, 126, repro.

1979: Domenikos Theotokopoulos (El Greco): Some Works of His Early and Mature Years, Benaki Museum, Athens; National Pinakothek, Athens, 1979-1980, 12-16.

1982: El Greco of Toledo, The Toledo [Ohio] Museum of Art; Prado, Madrid; National Gallery of Art, Washington; Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, 1982-1983, 256-257, no. 56, pls. 68, 69.

1989: Masterpieces of Western European Painting of the XVIth-XXth Centuries from the Museums of the European Countries and USA, State Hermitage Museum, Leningrad, 1989, no. 6, repro.

1992: El Greco. Laokoon, Museum Czartoryskich, Krakow, Poland, 1992, brochure, color repro. 8 and cover.

1994: A Gift to America: Masterpieces of European Painting from the Samuel H. Kress Collection, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Seattle Art Museum; Calif. Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 1994-1995, no. 9.

2001: El Greco im Umfeld seiner Zeitgenossen [El Greco and His Contemporaries], Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Vienna, September-October 2001, no cat.

2001: El Greco, Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Vienna, May-September 2001, no. 43, repro.

2003: El Greco: The Illumination and Quickening of the Spirit, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The National Gallery, London, 2003-2004, no. 69, repro.

2008: El Greco to Velázquez: Art during the Reign of Philip III, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, 2008 (shown only in Boston), no. 6, repro.

2012: El Greco and Modernism, Museum Kunstpalast, Dusseldorf, 2012, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

2014: El Greco in the National Gallery of Art and Washington-Area Collections: A 400th Anniversary Celebration, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2014-2015, no catalogue.

2014: El Greco y la pintura moderna, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, 2014, unnumbered catalogue, fig. 125.

Technical Summary

The support is a fine-weight, plain-weave fabric, lined to a similar fabric. Over the white ground El Greco applied a thin red imprimatura, which he left exposed in many parts of the composition. The paint was applied in rich, opaque layers with thin, scumbled brushwork in the areas of lighter color. Although there is no high impasto, the brushwork is lively and textured. X-radiographs reveal only a few minor revisions of the composition. The painting was cleaned and restored by Mario Modestini in 1955. Extensive areas of loss in the throat, chest, and legs of the figure at the far left and in the raised leg of Laocoön were inpainted, as were smaller scattered damages. Modestini removed loincloths which had been painted over the figures at the far left and far right and a large bouffant coiffure which had been added to the female figure at the right. He also exposed the middle head of the group of three now visible at the right and the fifth leg between the two standing figures at the right. The painting is in fair condition.

Bibliography

1866: Catálogo de los cuadros y esculturas pertenecientes á la galeria de SS. AA. RR. los Sereníssimos Señores Infantes de España, Duques de Montpensier. Seville, 1866: 44, no. 155.

1903: Williamson, George Charles, ed. Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers. 4th ed. 5 vols. London, 1903-1904: 5:168.

1906: Förster, Richard. "Laokoön im Mittelalter und in der Renaissance." Jahrbuch der königlich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen (Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen) 27 (1906): 174-175.

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1908: Cossío, Manuel B. El Greco. Madrid, 1908: 357-363, 579, no. 162, pl. 67 (also 1972 ed.: 207-211, 397, no. 385, fig. 66).

1909: Calvert, Albert Frederick, and C. Gasquoine Hartley. El Greco. London, 1909: 170-171, pl. 126.

1911: Mayer, August L. El Greco. Munich, 1911: 56-58, 74, 82, repro. 73 (also 1916 ed.: 32-33, 57, pl. 51).

1911: Mayer, August L. "Sammlungen." Kunstchronik 23 (1911/1912): 10-11.

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1917: Henry, Norman. "Vergil in Art." Art and Archaeology 5 (1917): 239, repro.

1923: "Die Zeit und der Markt: Sammlungen." Der Cicerone 15 (1923): 1156-1157.

1923: Schmid, H. U. "Über das Jahr 1923." Jahresbericht der öffentlichen Kunstsammlungen, Basel 20 (1923): 6.

1924: Schmid, H. U. "Über das Jahr 1924: Gemäldegalerie." Jahresbericht der öffentlichen Kunstsammlungen, Basel 21 (1924): 6.

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1935: Clark, Kenneth. "Report: National Gallery, 1935." National Gallery and Tate Gallery Directors' Reports 1935. London, 1935: 4.

1937: Legendre, Maurice, and Alfred Hartmann. Domenikos Theotokopoulos Called El Greco. Paris, 1937: 482, repro.

1938: Goldscheider, Ludwig. El Greco. London, 1938: 8, 16, pl. 216 (also 1954 rev. ed.: pl. 193).

1939: Bourgeos, Stephen. Byrdcliffe Afternoons. Woodstock, New York, 1939: 99-101.

1939: Kehrer, Hugo. Greco als Gestalt des Manierismus. Munich, 1939: 100-108, pl. 13.

1944: Cook, Walter S. "El Greco's Laocoön in the National Gallery." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 26 (1944): 261-272, figs. 1-2, 4-6.

1946: Chamberlain, Betty. "Recent Additions to the Kress Collection." The Burlington Magazine 88, no. 517 (April 1946): 82.

1946: "Vernissage." Art News 45 (April, 1946): 17, repro.

1950: Camón Aznar, José. Dominico Greco. 2 vols. Madrid, 1950: 2:805, 880, 914-921, 1390, no. 696, figs. 714-717, 719-720 (also 1970 rev. ed., 2:815, 883, 918-924, 997, 1292, 1376, no. 684, figs. 780-783, 785-786).

1952: Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Great Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1952: 80, color repro.

1952: Frankfurter, Alfred M. "Interpreting Masterpieces: Twenty-four Paintings from the Kress Collection." Art News Annual 16 (1952): 99-100, repro. 96

1956: Guinard, Paul. El Greco. Translated by James Emmons. Cleveland, 1956: 104, 106, repro. 102, color repros. 103-104.

1956: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1956: 32, repro.

1956: Walker, John. "The Nation's Newest Old Masters." The National Geographic Magazine 110, no. 5 (November 1956): 634, repros. 644 (details).

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1958: Gaya Nuño, Juan Anotonio. La pintura española fuera de España; historia y catàlogo. Madrid, 1958: 206, no. 1424.

1958: Soehner, Halldor. "Greco in Spanien." Münchner Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst 9/10 (1958/1959); 181, 194, fig. 59.

1959: Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 269, repro.

1960: Evans, Grose. Spanish Painting in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1960 (Booklet Number Ten in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 20, color repro.

1960: Kehrer, Hugo. Greco in Toledo. Stuttgart, 1960: 69-70, figs. 75-76.

1960: The National Gallery of Art and Its Collections. Foreword by Perry B. Cott and notes by Otto Stelzer. National Gallery of Art, Washington (undated, 1960s): 20, color repro. 13.

1961: Walker, John, Guy Emerson, and Charles Seymour. Art Treasures for America: An Anthology of Paintings & Sculpture in the Samuel H. Kress Collection. London, 1961: 131-134, color repro. pl. 124-126.

1962: Martin, Kurt. Die Tschudi-Spende: Hugo von Tschudi zum Gedächtnis. Munich: 1962: 11.

1962: Neugass, Fritz. "Die Auflösung der Sammlung Kress." Die Weltkunst 32 (1 January, 1962): 3, repro.

1962: Wethey, Harold E. El Greco and His School. 2 vols. Princeton, 1962: 1:50-51, 61, 63, figs. 144-145; 2:83-84, no. 127 (also Spanish ed. Madrid, 1967: 1: 66-67, 76, 78, pls. 128-129; 2: 98, no. 127).

1963: Sánchez Cantón, Francisco Javier. El Greco. London, 1963: 43-44, pl. 44.

1963: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 164, no. 885, color repro. 165.

1965: Hauser, Arnold. Mannerism. Translated by Eric Mosbacher in collaboration with the author. 2 vols. New York, 1965: 1:269; 2:pl. 300.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 62.

1966: Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 1:202, color repro.

1968: Gandolfo, Giampaolo et al. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Great Museums of the World. New York, 1968: 12, 120-121, color repro.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 55, repro.

1969: Manzini, Gianna, and Tiziana Frati. L'opera completa del Greco. Milan, 1969: no. 166, color pls. 48-51.

1969: Palm, Erwin Walter. "El Greco's Laokoön." Pantheon 27 (1969): 129-135, figs. 1-5.

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1970: Palm, Erwin Walter. "Zu zwei späten Bildern von El Greco." Pantheon 28 (1970): 298-299.

1972: Waterhouse, Ellis. "Some Painters and the Counter Reformation Before 1600." Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, London 22 (1972): 114.

1973: Finley, David Edward. A Standard of Excellence: Andrew W. Mellon Founds the National Gallery of Art at Washington. Washington, 1973: 89, 90 repro.

1973: Gudiol, José. Domenikos Theotokopoulos, El Greco. Translated by Kenneth Lyons. New York, 1973: 268-271, 356, no. 227, color fig. 250, fig. 251 (also 1983 ed.: 268-271, color fig. 250, fig. 251).

1974: Walker, John. Self-Portrait with Donors. Boston, 1974: 144-146, repro. 145.

1974: Winner, Matthias. "Zum Nachleben des Laokoön in der Renaissance." Jahrbuch der königlich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen (Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen) 16 (1974): 113, n. 90.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 162, repro.

1975: Lafuente Ferrari, Enrique, and José Manuel Pita Andrade. El Greco: The Expressionism of His Final Years. Translated by Robert E. Wolf. New York, 1975: 61, 73-74, 114, 136-137, 162, no. 145, color fig. 93, color pls. 7-9.

1976: Davies, David. El Greco. London, 1976: 10, 16, n. to pl. 41, color pls. 41-43.

1977: Crombie, Theodore. Review of El Greco by David Davies. Apollo 106 (1977): 321.

1977: Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 195-201, figs. 198-200, text fig. 45, color repro. (detail).

1978: Waterhouse, Ellis. Review of El Greco by David Davies. The Burlington Magazine 120 (1978): 32.

1979: Watson, Ross. The National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1979: 60, pl. 44.

1981: "International Exhibits in the U.S.: El Greco of Toledo." AAM / ICOM 8, no. 2 (Spring 1981): 7, repro.

1981: López Torrijos, Rosa. "El Bimilienario de Virgilio y la pintura española del siglo XVII." Archivo Español de Arte y Arqueologia 54 (1981): 397-398.

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1984: Moffitt, John F. "A Christianization of Pagan Antiquity." Paragone 35 (November, 1984): 44-60, pl. 31.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 240, no. 307, color repro.

1985: Caviro, Balbina M. "Los Grecos de don Pedro Laso de la Vega." Goya 184 (January-February, 1985): 217-219, repro. 219.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 188, repro.

1985: López Torrijos, Rosa. La mitología en la pintura española del Siglo de Oro. Madrid, 1985: 220-222, 224, fig. 84.

1985: Pita Andrade, José Manuel. "Sobre la presencia del Greco en Madrid y de sus obras en las colecciones madrileñas del siglo XVII." Archivo Español de Arte y Arqueologia 58 (1985): 329.

1986: Kitaura, Yasunari. "El procedor artístico de El Greco." Boletin del Museo de Prado. 7 (1986): 85-91.

1990: Brown, Jonathan, and Richard G. Mann. Spanish Paintings of the Fifteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1990: 60-67, color repro. 63.

1990: El Greco of Crete: Exhibition on the Occasion of the 450th Anniversary of his Birth. Exh. cat. Iraklion, 1990: 185, fig. 7, 349.

1991: Gingold, Diane J., and Elizabeth A.C. Weil. The Corporate Patron. New York, 1991: 22-23, color fig.

1991: Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 185, color repro.

1992: National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 82, repro.

1993: Paul, Barbara. Hugo von Tschudi und die moderne französische Kunst im Deutschen Kaiserreich. Mainz, 1993: 287, fig. 100.

1996: Veronika Schroeder, "Spanien und die Moderne - Marczell von Nemes, Julius Meier-Graefe, Hugo von Tschudi," in Manet bis Van Gogh: Hugo von Tschudi und der Kampf um die Moderne. Exh. cat. Berlin and Munich, 1996: 419, 421, fig. 3.

1997: Tomlinson, Janis. From El Greco to Goya: Painting in Spain, 1561-1828, New York, 1997, no. 30, repro.

1998: Gibson, Sarah S. “Serpent’s Bite." In Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography: Themes Depicted in Works of Art. Edited by Helene E. Roberts. 2 vols. Chicago, 1998: 2:815.

1999: Zuffi, Stefano and Francesca Castria, La peinture baroque. Translated from Italian by Silvia Bonucci and Claude Sophie Mazéas. Paris, 1999: 24, color repro.

2001: Horgan, Marta. "The Golden Age of Spanish Art." Washington Parent (April 2001): 14.

2004: Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 110-112, no. 85, color repros.

2019: Stoenescu, Livia. The Pictorial Art of El Greco: Transmaterialities, Temporalities, and Media. Amsterdam, 2019: 248-294, color fig. 100.

2022: Petrucci, Valentina. "Patricia Urquiola, l'arte e il colore, che ha 'il potere di cambiare tutto'." Domus no. 1,072 (ottobre 2022): 6, color repro.