The Trinity

God the Father, robed and bearded, holds the limp body of the dead Christ across his knees while the dove of the Holy Spirit hovers and a ring of mourning angels presses in around them. Painted for the high altar of Santo Domingo el Antiguo in Toledo, El Greco's first great Spanish commission, the group is lifted from a Durer woodcut but stretched and lit in his own key - cold, iridescent color, bodies pulled long, the flesh of Christ marble-pale against the deep blue and acid yellow. Heaven mourns its own sacrifice. It is one of several El Grecos in this collection.