The subject of The Visitation concerns the meeting of the pregnant Virgin Mary, at the right, and her cousin, Elisabeth, also pregnant with John the Baptist (Luke 1:39–57). The Visitation was intended for the Church of San Vicente in Toledo for the Chapel of Isabel de Oballe, and the contract signed in 1607 for the chapel’s altarpiece (an Immaculate Conception now in the Museo de Santa Cruz, Toledo) stipulated “in the ceiling a story of the Visitation of Saint Elizabeth [Isabel], because that is the name of the founder, which is to be placed in a circle… . ” By April 17, 1613, El Greco declared the paintings completed. However, it is not certain that The Visitation was installed.

The artist, Doménikos Theotokópoulos, called El Greco, was born on Crete, where he trained in the tradition of Byzantine icon painting. In 1567, he emigrated to Venice, where he established himself with Titian’s workshop, and by 1576–77 he had left for Spain, where he spent the rest of his life in Toledo. El Greco’s art developed into a personal blending of Byzantine and Italian Mannerist elements and was often characterized by a spiritual fervor. Typical of this is the Dumbarton Oaks Visitation, where the boldly attenuated figures are caught in strong highlighting and are outlined by a seemingly celestial light. Such artistic abstractions allowed El Greco to emphasize the ethereal and timeless nature of the biblical world, achieving a result not dissimilar in intent to that of much of Byzantine art.

Conservation of the painting has revealed that, at some unknown date, the original canvas was cut on all sides and that the original composition had a circular outline, exactly as was specified in the 1607 contract.

J. Carder

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Intended for the ceiling of the Oballe Chapel in the Church of San Vicente in Toledo, possibly never installed.

Reportedly at the Convent Church of Sta. Clara, Daimiel (Ciudad Real), Spain.

Arthur Byne, Medieval & Renaissance Art, Madrid, in the 1920s.

Apolinar Sánchez (dealer), Calle Santa Catalina 3, Madrid, early 1931.

Possibly J. Horace Harding, New York, NY, early 1930s.

Collection of the dealer M. Knoedler & Co., New York, NY by 1935;[1]

Purchased through Arthur Byne, Madrid (dealer), from M. Knoedler & Co., New York, NY (dealer), by Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss, 1/17/1936.

Collection of Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss, Washington, DC, 1/17/1936-11/29/1940.

Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, House Collection, Washington, DC.


Notes:
[1] Appears as "Collection of M. Knoedler & Co." in the exhibition checklist for "Summer Exhibition: The Museum Collection and a Private Collection on Loan," at the Museum of Modern Art; see https://assets.moma.org/documents/moma_master-checklist_325038.pdf