Chapter 1 of 6
A Man from the Dark
Look at this man emerging from darkness, set against a ground of pure shadow. El Greco painted him in Toledo around 1580, not long after the Cretan-born artist settled in Castile and found his strange, electric style. Everything is pared away, no table, no window, no coat of arms, so that three things hold you: a pale face, a white ruff, and a hand pressed flat to the heart.
It is a portrait of restraint, of a Spanish gentleman pledging something silent. We do not know his name, only this gesture.
