The Feast in the House of Simon

El Greco (Doménikos Theotokópoulos) and workshop · c. 1608–14

Medium

Oil on canvas

Original size

143.3 × 100.4 cm (56 7/16 × 39 1/2 in.); Framed: 172.7 × 129.5 × 10.2 cm (68 × 51 × 4 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Mannerism

*The Feast in the House of Simon* announces itself through the charged stillness El Greco brings to even his most crowded compositions — figures gathered around Christ lean and gesture with an intensity that feels less theatrical than spiritual. Born in Crete and trained in the Byzantine tradition before studying under Titian in Venice and working briefly in Rome, El Greco carried several worlds into his mature Toledo work. His figures are characteristically elongated, his light sourceless and interior, and his colour combinations — cold silvers against smouldering ochres, acid greens alongside deep crimsons — unlike anything produced by his Spanish contemporaries. The "and workshop" attribution here reflects common practice for a painter of his standing: assistants contributed to large-format commissions while the master directed the composition and worked the key passages himself. El Greco returned to this biblical subject — the moment a sinful woman anoints Christ's feet at the Pharisee's table — multiple times across his career, refining its drama with each version. Our hand-painted oil reproduction is executed on canvas using traditional pigments, preserving the layered depth and luminous colour relationships that make the original so affecting — qualities that print reproductions consistently fail to convey.