The Monumental Staricase

Remarkable for its width (3 meters), steps of a single piece, a granite so compact that wear is not noticeable for centuries. Three sections (13,9,13 = 35 steps). Cleverly built, it lacks a support for the central section, supported by the strong walls and a set of forces. A few years ago it had to be reinforced with metal braces. Apparently it was built by Pedro Marlote and Juan de la Sierra, between 1594 and 1603. (The construction of the monument began on April 1, 1593) (The founder died in 1600, without seeing the work finished). On the floor, under the arcades, the traces, called monteas, can be observed as planes, from when the staircase was built

The patio of the Doric-Roman style; 22 meters on the side. Its pilasters, one and a half meters thick, support a simple entablature, with a frieze decorated with triglyphs and metopes. Surrounding the courtyard is an open cloister, 33 m long, 4 wide and 6.5 m high, covered with arched vaults and with rosettes at the intersections of the nerves. In the middle of each side and at the top are four shields in exquisitely carved stone: that of Cardinal Rodrigo de Castro, Casa de Lemos, Casa de Alba and that of the Pious Schools. The latter appears among the others, because it was the Piarists who finished the works, which were incomplete, between the years 1919-1926. (Northeast and northwest crevices, the new stone is visible).

There are five paintings by Andrea del Sarto that can be seen in the Pinacoteca of the Colegio de Nª Señora de la Antigua:

• Santa Margarita de Cortona , the penitent.
• Santa In és , a twelve-year-old girl, martyred in 304, with her symbolic lamb, the origin of her name.
• St. Catherine of Alexandria ed , patron of philosophers, martyr at age 18.
• Saint Peter , father of the Church, of a total perfection.
• San Juan Bautista , of great beauty in color and shapes. These last two are replicas of others existing in the Cathedral of Pisa.

Apparition of the Virgin to San Lorenzo
(Doménikos Theotokopoulos -GRECO-).

This work was commissioned by Inquisitor Rodrigo de Castro, who was also archbishop of Seville and bishop of Cuenca and Zamora. It is one of the few religious paintings for individuals that El Greco made during his first stay in Toledo.

San Lorenzo is dressed in a very fine dalmatic with brocades. In his right hand he holds the grill, symbol of his martyrdom. He looks at the Virgin with the Child Jesus, located in a cloud and focused by a beam of light. The background is formed by clouds with different tonalities.

The figure is broad and inscribed in a Renaissance triangle, although too elongated. The painter uses a quick and vigorous brushwork that shows all the details. The result is a beautiful and very spiritual canvas, as the eyes of the saint reflect.

San Pedro
Andrea Del Sarto

Oil on board. S XVI

Saint Peter , Cephas or simply Peter was one of the most outstanding disciples of Jesus of Nazareth. His birth name was Simon bar-JonaAnd was a fisherman by trade on the Sea of ??Galilee. He became the best known and most cited apostle of the New Testament. He is also quoted by Paul of Tarsus in his epistles, including the Epistle to the Galatians where he refers to it as one of the three columns of the Church of Jerusalem. A figure of the first order and of strong theological value because of the ministry entrusted to him by his own Jesus Christ, is also known as the prince of the apostles .Given the prestige he enjoyed in the early Church, there also proliferated the "apocryphal writings" centered on his figure, such as the Gospel of Peter , the Apocalypse of Peter , the Acts of Peter , the Acts of Peter and Paul , among others.

San Francisco and Brother Leon Meditating on Death

There are almost forty versions of this subject between the exits of El Greco's brush, his workshop and various copies or fakes, including a hand engravingby Diego de Astor. This avalanche of images of Saint Francis corresponds to the success in the message of the saint, who expresses with simplicity and emotion the importance of penance and meditation on death, key elements for the prevailing counter-reformist spirit in the Spain of Felipe II. San Francisco always appears kneeling, facing, carrying in his hands a skull to which he directs his gaze and his thoughts; At his feet we find Brother Leo in a prayerful attitude. Both figures are in front of a grotto, lightly appreciating the cloudy sky in a corner of the set. The figures begin their process of lengthening and loss of anatomy that will characterize the painting of Doménikos, using a canon of one to nine - the head is the ninth part of the body when the classical canon states that it will be the seventh part - while the folds of the thick fabrics "engulf" the anatomy of the figures, eliminating any reference to the bodies of the characters. As Cossío says, this is the "most original and most typical image among those painted by El Greco (...) but also the farthest one from that troubadour of God, sweet and human, and from the serene frescoes that inaugurated the cycle consecrated him Giotto in Assisi "

Santa Margarita
Andrea Del Sarto

Margaret of Antioch or Saint Margaret (venerated in the Orthodox Church as Marina of Antioch ) is a Christian saint, virgin and martyr, registered in the group of the Helpers saints. 
She was murdered for her faith under the persecution of Emperor Diocletian (reigning between 284 and 305).

Santa Catalina
Andrea Del SartoS

Catherine of Alexandria was a Christian martyr of the fourth century. His party is celebrated on November 25. His cult had spread throughout Europe from the sixth century, with emphasis between the tenth and twelfth centuries. It is included in the group of auxiliary saints and is invoked against sudden death

San Juan Bautista
Andrea Del Sarto

John the Baptist known as the Baptist or Saint John , was a Jewish itinerant preacher coeval of Jesus of Nazareth, born at the end of the 1st century BCHe is revered as an important religious figureIn Christianity, Islam and the Bahá'í faith. He is considered a prophet by all these confessions and several branches of Christianity have proclaimed him a saint.

John used baptism as the central sacrament of his messianic movement.He baptized Jesus.Some scholars believe that Jesus was a disciple of John and some of Jesus' followers had been followers of John before. 

According to the New Testament, John anticipated a messianic figure greater than himself,And the one who came was Jesus. Christians speak of John as if he were the precursor of Jesus,For having announced his coming.

Santa Inés
Andrea Del Sarto

Santa In és , a twelve-year-old girl, martyred in 304, with her symbolic lamb, the origin of her name.

The church has an impressive wooden altarpiece sculpted by Francisco de Moure and, after the death of this, his son. On one side of the altarpiece there is a prayer statue of Cardinal Rodrigo de Castro, made by Juan de Bolonia . The statue, placed on the remains of the cardinal, is in front of a picture of Our Lady of Antigua. Behind the painting is the burial of the mother of the cardinal. You can also see in the church a marble crucifix that was a gift of Felipe II to Cardinal Rodrigo de Castro. The author of this Christ is by Valerio Cioli. (S.XVI)

It has a pinacoteca in which several Grecos stand out . Outstanding are the San Francisco , which seems to ask about life and death while holding a skull, and the San Lorenzo , one of the few pictures of devotion he painted upon his arrival in Toledo , where he was acquired by Rodrigo de Castro in his time as inquisitor. .There are five works by the Mannerist Andrea del Sarto , Santa Margarita de Corton , Santa Ines , Santa Catalina de Alejandria , San Pedro and San Juan Bautista . Of the painting The Adoration of the Kings by Hugo van der Goes, only one copy remains, since it was sold in 1913 to the Staatliche Museen in Berlin for one million two hundred thousand pesetas that allowed the completion of the works of the school. The gallery is completed by two works by the Italian Giovani Bernardino Azzolino: Death and The Last Judgment , and an anonymous portrait of Cardinal Rodrigo de Castro.

The museum has several incunabula and manuscripts, including an incomplete copy of the Bird Hunting Book , a falconry treatise written by Pedro López de Ayala during his captivity in Portugal, as well as personal objects of the cardinal.

The Earthquake of Lisbon of 1755 cracked some walls and vaults, affected some sculptures and carvings, demolished several wings of the angels located in the pendentives of the dome, cracked the great dome and damaged the monumental staircase, which allowed the specialists to study the ingenious play of forces that keeps it in the air . Some signs of the cataclysm remain today.

Holy Christ

Italian Valerio Cioli (1529-1599), author of the statues of the tomb of Michelangelo. Name and date that appear engraved on the bottom of the purity cloth of the image.

It is made of marble in one piece, except the arms. It emphasizes in him the majestic and serene expression of his face. It was commissioned by Felipe II for El Escorial (Madrid), but he did not like it, considering it too muscular; he gave it to the Cardinal with whom he was very close.

Nª Sª DE LA ANTIGUA

Picture of the Virgin of the Old, that the cardinal had in his oratory of the episcopal palace of Seville and that is copy of the Employer of the Cathedral.

• The Virgin of Antigua is an invocation of the Virgin Mary. The Virgin is usually represented with the Child Jesus and a white rose. This image is in the cathedral of Seville. Probably it is a Castilian-Leonese invocation of the Middle Ages. She is the patron saint of Panama.

• The mural where the Virgin of the Cathedral of Seville is 3.21 m high by 1.16 m wide and has a concave surface.?

• The Virgin of the Cathedral of Seville has a white robe, as well as a cloak that covers her head and shoulders. The fabric of the tunic and mantle are white and decorated with golden vegetable motifs. On the underside of the mantle is dark and golden stripes. The neck of the Virgin's tunic is curvilinear. With one hand he holds a white rose and with the other a Child Jesus. The boy has a dark tunic with golden vegetable details.

• The Virgin holds the child above the hip, next to his chest. The Child's tunic has a neck with a slightly pointed toe.Both the Virgin and the Child appear with aura. In the upper part there is an angel with a sign that says Ecce Maria venit and, something below, there are two other angels that hold a crown on the head of the Virgin. The baby Jesus has a crown. This Virgin was canonically crowned in 1929.