Domenikos Theotokopoulos, called El Greco
Greek, active in Spain, 1541–1614

The Assumption of the Virgin, 1577/79

Oil on canvas
403.2 x 211.8 cm (158 3/4 x 83 3/4 in.)
Inscribed on paper at lower right in Greek: (Domenikos Theotokopoulos, Cretan, displayed this in 1577)
Gift of Nancy Atwood Sprague in memory of Albert Arnold Sprague, 1906.99

Exhibition, Publication and Ownership Histories

Exhibition, Publication and Ownership Histories

Exhibition History

Pau, Salons de l’ancien Asile de Pau, Tableaux appartenant aux héritiers de feu Msg. l’Enfant don Sébastien de Bourbon et Bragance, 1876, no. 668.

Madrid, Museo Nacional de Pintura y Escultura, Exposición de las obras de Domenico Thetocopuli, llamado El Greco, 1902, no. 6.

Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress, 1933, no. 169, pl. 25.

Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress, 1934, no. 70.

Publication History

Antonio Palamino de Castro y Velasco, El museo pictórico y escala óptica, vol. 3, Madrid, 1717, chap. 57; reprinted, 1947, p. 841.

Antonio Ponz, Viaje de España, vol. 1, Madrid, 1774, letter 4; reprinted, 1947, p. 78.

Juan Agustín Ceán Bermúdez, Diccionario histórico de los más ilustres profesores de las bellas artes en España, vol. 5, Madrid, 1800, p. 10.

Samuel Edward Cook, Sketches in Spain during the Years 1829, 30, and 31, London, 1834, p. 157.

Nicolás Magan, “Biografía española: El Greco,” Seminario pintoresco español 2 (Sept. 8, 1844), pp. 285–86.

José Amador de los Rios, Toledo pintoresca, o descripción de sus más célebres monumentos, Madrid, 1845, p. 182; reprinted, Barcelona, 1976.

Sixto Ramón Parro, Toledo en la mano, vol. 2, Toledo, 1857, pp. 114–16.

Louis Viardot, Les Musées d’Espagne, Paris, 1860, p. 159.

Charles Blanc, introduction to Sébastien de Bourbon, “Les huiles et des vernis employés pour la peinture,” Gazette des Beaux-Arts 1st ser., 15 (1863), p. 176.

André-Absinthe Lavice, Revue des musées d’Espagne: Catalogue raisonné, Paris, 1864, p. 225.

Henry O’Shea, Guide to Spain and Portugal, Edinburgh, 1868, pp. 288–89.

Luis Rodriguez Miguel, Guía del viajero en Toledo, Toledo, 1880, pp. 112–13.

Vizconde de Palazuelos, Toledo: Guía histórico-práctica, Toledo, 1890, pp. 831–32.

Francisco Navarro Ledesma, “El Greco en Toledo,” La ilustración nacional 30 (Dec. 30, 1894), p. 567.

Carl Justi, “Domenico Theotocopuli von Kreta,” Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst, n.s., 8 (1897), pp. 260–62; reprinted in Miscellaneen aus drei Jahrhunderten spanischen Kunstlebens, vol. 2, Berlin, 1908, pp. 228–30 (ill.).

Aureliano de Beruete y Moret, Velázquez, Paris, 1898, pp. 67–68.

Hannah Lynch, Toledo: The Story of an Old Spanish Capital, London, 1898, pp. 197, 207.

Guillermo J. de Guillén García, “Domenico Theotocópuli (El Greco): Sus cuadros,” Revista de la Asociación artístico arqueológica barcelonesa 3 (1899), p. 243.

Arthur Symons, “A Study at Toledo,” Monthly Review 2, 6 (1901), pp. 149–50.

Francisco de Alcántara, “El Greco, pintor cristiano,” El Imparcial (June 5, 1902), pp. 3–4.

Salvador Sanpere y Miquel, “Exposiciones Rosales y Greco,” Album Salón 115 (June 1, 1902), pp. 135–37.


M[anuel] B. Cossío, “Más documentos inéditos para la histora del arte español,” La lectura: Revista de ciencias y de artes 5, 53 (1905), p. 2.

Paul Lafond, “Domenikos Theotokopuli, dit Le Greco,” Les Arts 58 (Oct. 1906), pp. 4, 5, 18 (ill.).

Ludwig Zottmann, “Zur Kunst von ‘El Greco,’” Die christliche Kunst 3 (1906/7), pp. 67, 104–05.

“La exportació de objectes d’art,” Forma 2 (1907), p. 451.

Michel Utrillo, Domenikos Theotokopoulos, “El Greco,” Barcelona, n.d. [1907?], p. 5 (ill.)

Manuel B. Cossío, El Greco, Madrid, 1908, pp. 125–37, 143–44, 594, no. 279; rev. ed. by Natalia Cossío de Jiménez, Barcelona, 1972, pp. 67, 79, 86–91, 94, 100–01, 104–05, 120, 128, 130, 236, 309, 370, fig. 24, no. 138.

Philip L[eslie] Hale, El Greco, Boston, 1908, pp. 39, 42, pl. 3.

“The New El Greco Frame,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 1 (1908), pp. 20–21 (ill.).

Morton H. Bernath, “Drei Hauptwerke des Greco in Amerika,” Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst, n.s., 21 (1909–10), pp. 20–24 (ill.).

Albert F[rederick] Calvert and C[atherine] Gasquoine Hartley, El Greco, New York, 1909, pp. 79–81, pl. 29.

Francisco de Borja de San Román y Fernández, El Greco en Toledo, Madrid, 1910, p. 31; reprinted, Toledo, 1982, p. 45.

August L. Mayer, El Greco: Eine Einführung in das Leben und Wirken des Domenico Theotocopuli, Munich, 1911, pp. 11 (ill.), 24–25; rev. ed., 1916, pp. 16–17, 44, 51, pl. 6.

Hugo Kehrer, Die Kunst des Greco, Munich, 1913, p. 21, pl. 8; rev. ed., 1920, p. 21, pl. 8.

William N. Bates, “Archaeological News,” American Journal of Archaeology 19, 3 (1915), pp. 365–66.

Lorinda Munson Bryant, What Pictures to See in America, New York, 1915, pp. 257–58, fig. 167.

“Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Sprague,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 9 (1915), pp. 33–34 (ill.).

The Art Institute of Chicago, Handbook of Sculpture, Architecture, Paintings, and Drawings, Chicago, 1920, p. 20, no. 50.

The Art Institute of Chicago, Handbook of Sculppture, Architecture, Paintings, and Drawings, Chicago, 1922, p. 20, no. 50.

A[ureliano] de Beruete y Moret, Conferencias de arte, Madrid, 1924, pp. 111–12, ill. opp. p. 110.

M[arian] C[omings], “El Grecos in the Art Institute,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 18 (1924), pp. 30–31 (ill.).

Élie Lambert, “Les Procédés du Greco,” Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 5th ser., 10 (1924), p. 154.

The Art Institute of Chicago, A Guide to the Paintings in the Permanent Collection, Chicago, 1925, pp. 76, 154, no. 507 (ill.).

August L. Mayer, Dominico Theotocopuli, El Greco, Munich, 1926, p. 19, no. 114, pl. 7.

Verardo García Rey, El Déan de la Santa Iglesia de Toledo, don Diego de Castilla, Toledo, 1927, pp. 79–80, 87–89.

J[ens] F[erdinand] Willumsen, La Jeunesse du peintre El Greco, vol. 1, Paris, 1927, pp. 566–72, pl. 25.

Emilio Huguet del Villar, El Greco en España, Madrid, 1928, pp. 10, 51–52, 70, 84–85, 171, pl. 3.

Antonio Weyler, “Reflexiones sobre El Greco,” Arte español 10 (1929), pp. 438–39.

Frank Rutter, El Greco, New York, 1930, p. 28.

Ellis K. Waterhouse, “El Greco’s Italian Period,” Art Studies 8 (1930), pp. 81, 83, pls. 30–33.

Camille Mauclair, Le Greco, Paris, 1931, pp. 27, 75.

August L. Mayer, El Greco, Berlin, 1931, pp. 2, 13, 41–44, 163, fig. 32.

Ella S. Siple, “Museums in Chicago,” Burlington Magazine 58 (1931), p. 108.

The Art Institute of Chicago, A Guide to the Paintings in the Permanent Collection, Chicago,1932, pp. 95–96 (ill.), 173.

C[harles] J[oseph] Bulliet, “A Century of Progress in Collecting,” Art Journal 5, 4 (1933), p. 7.

Daniel Catton Rich, “Die Ausstellung ‘Fünf Jahrhunderte der Frühmalerei’ in Chicago,” Pantheon 12 (1933), p. 381.

Frederick Albert Gutheim, “El Greco and Chicago,” Survey Graphic 23 (1934), pp. 490–92 (ill.).

Francisco de B[orja] San Román [y Fernández], “Documentos del Greco, referentes a los cuadros de Santo Domingo el Antiguo,” Archivo español del arte y arqueología 10 (1934), p. 8.

The Art Institute of Chicago, A Brief Illustrated Guide to the Collections, Chicago,1935, p. 2 (ill.).

Frederick A. Sweet, Spanish Painting, exh. cat., Brooklyn Museum of Art, 1935, n.pag., under no. 27.

Oskar Frank Leonard Hagen, Patterns and Principles of Spanish Art, Madison, Wis., 1936, p. 117; rev. ed., 1943, p. 142.

Raymond Escholier, Greco, Paris, 1937, p. 31 (ill.).

M[aurice] Legendre and A[lbert] Hartmann, Domenikos Theotokopoulos, Called El Greco, Paris, 1937, p. 236 (ill.).

Ludwig Goldscheider, El Greco, London, 1938, p. 9, pl. 22; 2nd ed., 1949, pp. 9, 18, pl. 12; 3rd ed., 1954, pp. 8–9, 17, pl. 13.

The Art Institute of Chicago, A Brief Illustrated Guide to the Collections, Chicago, 1941, p. 2 (ill.).

José Gudiol, Spanish Painting, exh. cat., Toledo Museum of Art, 1941, p. 66, fig. 39.

Ignacio de Beryes, Domenicos Theotocopoulos, El Greco, Barcelona, 1944, p. 17.

Juan de la Encina, Domenico Greco, Mexico City, 1944, pp. 105–11.

The Art Institute of Chicago, An Illustrated Guide to the Collections of The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 1945, p. 2 (ill.).

Walter Heil, Loan Exhibition of Masterworks by El Greco, exh. cat., San Francisco, M. H. De Young Memorial Museum, 1947, n.pag.

The Art Institute of Chicago, An Illustrated Guide to the Collections of The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 1948, p. 2 (ill.).

Fiske Kimball and Lionello Venturi, Great Paintings in America, New York, 1948, p. 94, no. 40 (ill.).

Leo Bronstein, El Greco, New York, 1950, pp. 48, 50, pls. 1–2.

José Camón Aznar, Dominico Greco, Madrid, 1950, vol. 1, pp. 249–53, figs. 142, 144, vol. 2, p. 1356, no. 3; rev. ed., 1970, vol. 1, pp. 270–79, figs. 161, 163–66, vol. 2, p. 1356, no. 3.

Frederick A. Sweet, “Tintoretto and El Greco,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 44 (1950), p. 23.

The Art Institute of Chicago, Masterpieces in The Art Institute of Chicago, 1952, n.pag. (ill.).

Charles Fabens Kelley, “Chicago: record years,” Art News 51, 4 (1952), pp. 52 (ill.), 107.

Bernardino de Pantorba, 70 obras maestras del Greco, Madrid, 1953, p. 50, pl. 1.

Diego Angulo Iñíguez, Pintura del Renacimiento, Ars Hispaniae 12, Madrid, 1954, p. 277, fig. 283.

Xavier de Salas, “Más valoraciones románticas del Greco y nota al pintor Aparicio y sus plagios,” Clavileño, revista de la Asociación internacional de hispanismo 5, 27 (1954), p. 29.

Antonina Vallentin, El Greco, trans. Andrew Révai and Robin Chancellor, Garden City, N.Y., 1955, pp. 95–96, 286–88, pl. 24.

Lionello Venturi, The Sixteenth Century: From Leonardo to El Greco, New York, 1956, pp. 257 (ill.), 262.

The Art Institute of Chicago, An Illustrated Guide to the Collections of The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, [1956], p. 2 (ill.).

Paul Guinard, El Greco, trans. James Emmons, New York, 1956, p. 18.

Michel Florisoone, “La Mystique plastique du Greco et les antécédents de son style,” Gazette des Beaux-Arts 6th ser., 49 (1957), p. 36, fig. 22.

Halldor Soehner, “Greco in Spanien,” Münchner Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst, 3rd ser., 8 (1957), pp. 124, 126, 128, 132; 9/10 (1958–59), p. 152, pl. 11c; 11 (1960), p. 176.

Juan Antonio Gaya Nuño, La pintura española fuera de España, Madrid, 1958, pp. 53, 188–89, no. 1214, pl. 105.

Aline B. Saarinen, The Proud Possessors, New York, 1958, p. 165.

Elizabeth du Gué Trapier, El Greco: Early Years at Toledo, New York, 1958, pp. 6–12, 17, 24, fig. 6.

Gaston Diehl, El Greco, New York, 1959, p. 32. Hugo Kehrer, Greco in Toledo: Höhe und Vollendung, 1577–1614, Stuttgart, 1960, p. 18.

The Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection, Chicago, 1961, pp. 89–91 (ill.), 203–04.

Louisine W. Havemeyer, Sixteen to Sixty: Memoirs of a Collector, New York, 1961, pp. 153–56.

Pál Kelemen, El Greco Revisited: Candia, Venice, Toledo, New York, 1961, pp. 147, 154–55, pl. 110B.

F[rancisco] J[avier] Sánchez Cantón, El Greco, Milan, 1961, p. 3.

Harold E. Wethey, El Greco and His School, Princeton, 1962, vol. 1, pp. 34, 112, figs. 46–48, 391, vol. 2, pp. 4–5, no. 1; rev. Spanish ed., trans. Carlos Cid, Madrid, 1967, vol. 1, p. 51, pls. 39–41, 391, vol. 2, p. 20, no. 1.

Philip Troutman, El Greco, New York, 1963, pp. 13, 30, pl. 7.

Allan Braham, “Two Notes on El Greco and Michelangelo,” Burlington Magazine 108 (1966), pp. 307–08, fig. 39.

Leo Bronstein, El Greco, New York, 1966, pp. 48, 50, pls. 1–2; repr., New York, 1990.

Rodolfo Pallucchini, “L’Art Institute di Chicago,” L’illustrazione del medico 33 (Feb. 1966), p. 11 (ill.).

Denys Sutton, “The Great Grey City,” Apollo 84 (1966), p. 177.

Frederick A. Sweet, “Great Chicago Collectors,” Apollo 84 (1966), pp.. 190–91, fig. 1.

Andrea Emiliani, Le Greco, Paris, 1967, p. 8.

Tiziana Frati, L’opera completa del Greco, Milan, 1969, pp. 95–96, no. 23f (ill.).

John Maxon, The Art Institute of Chicago, London, 1970, pp. 40–42 (ill.), 281; , rev. ed., London, 1977, pp. 40–42 (ill.), 282..

Damián Bayón, “El Greco: Creador de conjuntos plásticos,” Colóquio 5 (1971), pp. 17–19.

José Gudiol, Doménikos Theotokópoulos, El Greco, 1541–1614, Barcelona, 1971, pp. 67–68, 77, 342, no. 41, figs. 54–56; trans. Kenneth Lyons, London, 1973, pp. 67–68, 77, 342, no. 41, figs. 54–56.

Everett Fahy and Sir Francis Watson, The Wrightsman Collection, vol. 5, New York and Greenwich, Conn., 1973, pp. 102–03.

Jacques Lassaigne, El Greco, trans. Jane Brenton, London, 1973, pp. 171–72 (ill.).

David Davies, El Greco, London, 1976, pp. 6–7, 12, pl. 1.

The Art Institute of Chicago, 100 Masterpieces, Chicago, 1978, pp. 18, 20, pl. 13.

John D. Morse, Old Masters Paintings in North America, New York, 1979, pp. 152 (ill.), 154.

Edi Baccheschi, Il Greco: Tutti i dipinti, Milan, 1980, p. 24, no. 21f (ill.).

Katharine Baetjer, “El Greco,” Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 39, 1 (1981), pp. 26, 28–29 (ill.).

Mercedes Agueda, “La colección de pinturas del infante Don Sebastián Gabriel,” Boletín del Museo del Prado 3 (1982), p. 106, no. 26.

Jonathan Brown, “El Greco and Toledo,” in El Greco of Toledo, exh. cat., Toledo Museum of Art, 1982, pp. 116–18, 122, 135, figs. 66–67, pl. 22.

Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez, “On the Reconstruction of El Greco’s Dispersed Altarpieces,” in El Greco of Toledo, pp. 151–52, 156, figs. 75–80.

El Greco Exhibition, exh. cat., Tokyo, National Museum of Western Art, 1986, pp. 78, 91–92, fig. 16.

Gilbert Jimenez, “El Greco’s ‘The Assumption’ Has More than Meets the Eye,” Chicago Sun-Times, Aug. 15, 1986, p. 35.

Yasunari Kitaura, “El procedor artístico de El Greco,” Boletín del Museo del Prado 7 (1986), p. 87.

Richard George Mann, El Greco and His Patrons, Cambridge, 1986, pp. 36–41, fig. 9.

Frances Weitzenhoffer, The Havemeyers: Impressionism Comes to America, New York, 1986, pp. 156–57, pl. 125.

Myrtali Acheimastou-Potamianou, ed., From Byzantium to El Greco, trans. David A. Hardy, exh. cat., Byzantine Museum of Athens, and London, Royal Academy of Arts, 1987, p. 191, under 67.

José Álvarez Lopera, De Ceán á Cossío: La fortuna critica del Greco en el siglo XIX, Madrid, 1987, pp. 15, 46, 122, 124, 152, 162.

Kenneth S. Lynn, Hemingway, Cambridge, Mass., 1987, pp. 16, 402–03.

The Art Institute of Chicago, Master Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 1988, pp. 8, 23 (ill.).

David Davies, El Greco: Mystery and Illumination, exh. cat., Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland, 1989, pp. 24–25, fig. 9.

Suzanne Stratton, La inmaculada concepción en el arte español, Madrid, 1989, pp. 43–44, fig. 37.

Jonathan Brown and Richard George Mann, Spanish Paintings of the Fifteenth through Nineteenth Centuries, Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue, Washington, D.C., 1990, p. 42.

David Davies, “The Relationship of El Greco’s Altarpieces to the Mass of the Roman Rite,” in The Altarpiece in the Renaissance, ed. Peter Humfrey and Martin Kemp, Cambridge, 1990, pp. 215, 222, 226, 231, pl. 131.

Mercedes Orihuela, ed., Museo de la Trinidad (bienes desarmortizados), vol. 2 of Inventario general de pinturas, Madrid, Museo del Prado, 1991, p. 108, no. 299 (ill.).

Éva Nyerges, “La Madeleine pénitente du Greco à Budapest,” Bulletin du Musée Hongrois des Beaux-Arts 76 (1992), p. 51, fig. 33.

José Álvarez Lopera, El Greco: La obra esencial, Madrid, 1993, pp. 92–96, 243 (ill.), 279, no. 34.

Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen et al., Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection, exh. cat., New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993, pp. 17–18, 229, 233, 238, 243, fig. 66.

Neil Harris, Chicago’s Dream, a World’s Treasure: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1893–1993, ed. Teri J. Edelstein, Chicago, 1993, p. 24 (ill.).

Dario Gamboni, "Arts visuels, espace et territoire," in Le Grand Atlas de I'art, Paris , 1993, pp. 15-16, fig. 6.

Suzanne Stratton, The Immaculate Conception in Spanish Art, Cambridge, 1994, pp. 54-56, fig. 35.

Albert Boime, “The Americanization of El Greco,” in El Greco of Crete, ed. Nicos Hadjinicolaou, Iraklion, 1995, pp. 621–22.

Stella Papadaki-Oekland, “El Greco’s ‘Byzantinism’: A Re-evaluation,” in El Greco of Crete, pp. 418–20, fig. 11.

Nicos Hadjinicolaou, ed., El Greco in Italy and Italian Art, exh. cat., Athens, National Gallery, 1995, p. 400.

Jon Margolis, “Off-the-Wall Lessons in History: One Man’s Unorthodox View of the Art Institute,” Chicago Tribune Magazine, Sept. 17, 1995, p. 16.

Patricia Taylor, “Blasphemous Altar: Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon as an Homage to the Virgin-Whore,” Journal for the Association of the Interdisciplinary Study of the Arts 1, 1 (Autumn 1995), pp. 136–37, fig. 3.

Jonathan Brown, “Picasso and the Spanish Tradition of Painting,” in Picasso and the Spanish Tradition, ed. Jonathan Brown, New Haven, 1996, pp. 6, 8, 10, figs. 1, 5.

Robert Rosenblum, “The Spanishness of Picasso’s Still Lifes,” in Picasso and the Spanish Tradition, pp. 75–76.

José Milicua, ed., El Greco: La seva revaloració pel Modernisme català, exh. cat., Barcelona, Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, 1996, p. 106.

Fernando Marías, El Greco, Madrid, 1997, pp. 151–52, figs. 94, 96.

Janis Tomlinson, From El Greco to Goya: Painting in Spain, 1561–1828, New York, 1997, pp. 47–49, fig. 23.

Erica E. Hirschler, “Helping ‘Fine Things across the Atlantic’: Mary Cassatt and Art Collecting in the United States,” in Mary Cassatt: Modern Woman, exh. cat., ed. Judith A. Barter, Art Institute of Chicago, 1998, pp. 204–05, fig. 31.

Richard G. Mann, “El Greco’s Altarpieces for the Chapel of Saint Joseph: Devotion, Politics, and Artistic Innovation in Counter-Reformation Toledo,” in The Word Made Image: Religion, Art, and Architecture in Spain and Spanish America, 1500–1600, ed. Anne Hawley, Boston, 1998, pp. 48–49, fig. 1.

Steven A. Nash with Robert Rosenblum, Picasso and the War Years, 1937–1945, exh. cat., Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1998, pp. 44–45, fig. 8.

José Manuel Pita Andrade, “El Greco in Spain,” in El Greco: Identity and Transformation, exh. cat., ed.

José Álvarez Lopera, Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, 1999, pp. 134–36 (ill.).

Yasunari Kitaura, “El Greco: La antigüedad encontrada a través del Renacimiento italiano,” in El Greco in Italy and Italian Art, ed. Nicos Hadjinicolaou, Rethymno, Crete, 1999, pp. 260–61, fig. 2.

Joanne Snow-Smith, “El Greco’s Religious Oeuvre in Spain: Reflections of Titian’s Venetian Light and Michelangelo’s Figura Serpentina,” in El Greco in Italy and Italian Art, p. 416, fig. 10.

Sylvia Ferino-Pagden and Fernando Checa Cremades, eds., El Greco, exh. cat., Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, 2001, pp. 28, 30, 36, 105, 142, pl. 9.

Susan Grace Galassi, “The Frick El Grecos,” in El Greco: Themes and Variations, ed. Joseph Focarino, exh. cat., New York, Frick Collection, 2001, p. 36.

El Greco, exh. cat., London, National Gallery, and New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2003, pp. 34, 48, 82, 109, 115, 130, 228, fig. 12.

Albert Boime, “El Greco en Nueva York: Su influencia en Jackson Pollock,” in Francisco Calvo Serraller, ed., El Greco, Madrid, 2003, p. X.

Fernando Checa, “El Greco y Tiziano,” in El Greco, p. 37.

Richard George Mann, “La ‘Asunción de la Virgen’: Creación y recepción de una obra maestra,” in El Greco, pp. 139–73, pl. 15.

Xavier Bray, El Greco, London, 2004, p. 23.

Neil Harris, “The Park in the Museum: The Making of an Icon,” in Seurat and the Making of “La Grande Jatte,” exh. cat. by Robert L. Herbert, Art Institute of Chicago, 2004, pp. 234 (ill.), 257 n. 8.

Richard G. Mann in Martha Wolff et al., Northern European and Spanish Paintings before 1600 in the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, 2008), pp. 54-61, ill.

Al Gury, Color for Painters: A Guide to Traditions and Practice (New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 2010), p. 85 (ill.).

Fernando Marías, El Greco: Life and Work—A New History (London: Thames & Hudson, 2013), pp.132-145, pp. 142 & 144 (ill.)

Leticia Ruiz Gómez, Domenikos Theotokopooulos, El Greco: 1541-1614 (Madrid: Mapfre, 2013), pp. 34-36 (ill.)

Joaquín Melendo Pomareta, El misterio de El Greco y el franciscano Peretti: Papa Sixto V (1585-90) (Carenas: ASPACAR [Asociación en Defensa del Patrimonio de Carenas], 2013), pp. 31-34 (illustrated, but miscredited to the Museo del Prado).

Fernando Marías, “The Greek, Between Invention and History,” in El Greco of Toledo: Painter of the Visible and the Invisible (Madrid: Ediciones El Viso, 2014), pp. 30-31, fig. 13.

Fernando Marías, “Convent of Santo Domingo el Antiguo, Toledo,” in El Greco of Toledo: Painter of the Visible and the Invisible (Madrid: Ediciones El Viso, 2014), pp. 249-253.

Palma Martínez-Burgos, El Greco (Madrid: Editorial LIBSA, 2014), pp. 14-15, 60-61 (ill.).

Ownership History

Commissioned 1577 by Don Diego de Castilla for the convent church of Santo Domingo el Antiguo, Toledo; installed with other paintings in the main retable by September 1579; sold c. 1830 to the Infante Don Sebastián Gabriel de Borbón y Braganza (died 1875), Madrid and later Pau, France, but confiscated from him by the Spanish government and installed in the Museo Nacional de la Trinidad, Madrid, in 1835 [Lavice 1864 recorded that the Assumption was on display in the Museo Nacional de Pinturas, but this cannot be confirmed]; returned to Don Sebastián in 1861; his estate in custody of the Spanish government, 1875–87 [see María Teresa Baratech Zelama, “La testamentario del Infante Don Sebastián Gabriel de Borbón y Braganza,” Archivo español de arte 62 (1989), pp. 372–77 for the status of his estate]; his widow, the Infanta María Cristina de Borbón (died 1902), Aranjuez and Madrid; offered for sale, Madrid, October 1902, no. 2, but bought in, then lent by the Infanta’s heirs to the Museo del Prado, Madrid, 1902–04 [see Cossío 1908, p. 594, no. 279]; purchased from them by Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris, for 100,000 frs. ($17,000), October 1904, with funds provided by Henry O. Havemeyer, New York [see Havemeyer 1961, p. 155]; sold to the Art Institute, July 17, 1906.