CIRCLE OF DOMÉNIKOS THEOTOKÓPOULOS, CALLED EL GRECO (1541-1614)

The Annunciation was one of the most popular themes in El Greco’s iconographic repertoire, appearing throughout his career. The present picture is closest to the Annunciation by El Greco and an assistant, dateable to circa 1600-1605 and today held the Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio (see Wethey, op. cit., no. 42, fig. 169). The Toledo version, or another lost original of the same type, was seemingly available to El Greco’s son, Jorge Manuel Theotocópuli, and other pupils in his studio, as attested to by several existing workshop versions (ibid, figs. 168, 170, 173).