A sense of chaos permeates the picture, and the viewer is invariably struck by the depth and detail of its illusion." Every inch of the canvas is filled with color and vibrant detail.

El Greco's "The Vision of St. John" is also vivid and colorful, and yet the composition and style as well as the iconography could not be more divergent from Jan van Eyck's "The Crucifixion." In El Greco's oil painting, St. John the Evangelist appears in the foreground, his arms outstretched to the heavens. The artist does not attempt a realistic depiction of the subject, but rather an impression thereof. Bodies are undulating as if under water.

Both Jan van Eyck and El Greco created masterworks of official Catholic iconography. Also an altar painting like van Eyck's, "The Vision of St. John" was commissioned by Pedro Salazar de Mendoza in 1608. The most notable shift in artistic consciousness that took place in early seventeenth century Spain was that "El Greco set out to renew Catholic imagery...he did not depict the "moment ...but in the process of musing."

Moreover, El Greco adopted "stylistic...

Jan van Eyck: the play of realism. Reaktion Books, 1995, 13.
Scholz-Hansel, Michael. El Greco: Domenikos Theotokopoulos, 1541-1614. Taschen, 2004

Craig Harbison, Jan van Eyck: the play of realism. Reaktion Books, 1995, 13.

Craig Harbison, Jan van Eyck, 1995, 57.

Craig Harbison, Jan van Eyck, 1995, 13.

Michael Scholz-Hansel, El Greco: Domenikos Theotokopoulos, 1541-1614. Taschen, 2004, 68.

Michael Scholz-Hansel, El Greco, 2004, 68.

Michael Scholz-Hansel, El Greco, 2004, 73.