View of Toledo

El Greco was born on Crete, trained in Venice and Rome, and lived most of his life in Toledo. This is the city he adopted, under a storm. The sky is torn into dark and silver clouds, the hills are an unreal, electric green, and the buildings on the ridge glow pale against the dark. The river Tagus runs below a bridge. El Greco didn’t paint the view exactly as it was: he moved buildings around, including the cathedral, to make the picture he wanted. It is less a map of a place than a feeling about one. Few landscapes before it were this stormy, or this personal.

Look closely

1. Find the bridge across the river.
2. Look at the clouds. Where is the light coming from?
3. Find the tallest building on the ridge.

While you sit

A city you love, seen in strange weather. Let the storm stay up there while you stay here.

Your seat in the galleries: a storm-gray slate bench with an acid-green stripe along its edge.