El Greco Sold Us a Stairway to Heaven

In the early 1600s El Greco accepted a commission to do paintings for a hospital for the poor. One of the works was the Madonna of Charity in which an oversized Madonna opens her cloak to provide shelter for some men wearing ruffs — those fancy, white, frilly, circular collars that indicated wealth and privilege. The artist’s patrons were shocked by this and hired a new artist to paint over the ruffs, to make the men look more destitute. El Greco just did not seem to realize that it was appropriate to paint the Virgin protecting the poor, especially for a charitable hospital, as he seemed to have little use for those types of folks. <a href="https://medium.com/equality-includes-you/el-greco-sold-us-a-stairway-to-heaven-ea4f7c361832">Click Here</a>