Thomas Gordon Smith Architects

A Frame for El Greco’s “Assumption of the Virgin” was designed for the Art Institute of Chicago during the renovation of their principal gallery of European Renaissance art. The painting was originally the centerpiece of a large number of El Greco works above the altar of the Bernardine convent of Santo Domingo el Antiguo painted in Toledo in the late 1570’s. The charge from the curators was to design a setting that would convey a sense of how the painting was perceived in its original chapel. In the new Art Institute gallery the painting was elevated above an altar-like projection and surrounded by an architectural structure similar to that designed by El Greco.

Frame for El Greco's "Assumption of the Virgin"
Location: Art Institute of Chicago, IL
Client: Art Institute of Chicago
A Frame for El Greco’s “Assumption of the Virgin” was designed for the Art Institute of Chicago during the renovation of their principal gallery of European Renaissance art. The painting was originally the centerpiece of a large number of El Greco works above the altar of the Bernardine convent of Santo Domingo el Antiguo painted in Toledo in the late 1570’s. The charge from the curators was to design a setting that would convey a sense of how the painting was perceived in its original chapel. In the new Art Institute gallery the painting was elevated above an altar-like projection and surrounded by an architectural structure similar to that designed by El Greco.