Focus on this artwork and discuss the Attribution.
The painting has a long-standing attribution to El Greco which is supported by most scholars. There has been some speculation that the plan of Toledo was penned on the surface of the painting by El Greco's son Jorge Manuel. Guillermo Santacruz Sánchez de Rojas argued that the entire painting is by Jorge Manuel: He claims El Greco would have been too elderly to have produced this painting, as creating preparatory sketches of the city and measurements for the plan would have required significant walking and climbing.The origin of the map of Toledo has been the subject of some debate. Most scholarship, significantly that of Richard Kagan and Fernando Marías, indicates that the map was drafted by El Greco himself before it was drawn onto the painting. Because most of the engineers capable of producing maps were concentrated in Seville at the Casa de Contratación, some scholars, including Juan Cervera, argue El Greco would have been the only person in Toledo with the skills to produce such a plan. These arguments are supported by a surviving letter from El Greco's time in Venice indicating he knew the luxury mapmaker Georgios Sideris, called Callapoda. It would thus be possible El Greco trained with Callapoda before he moved to Spain in 1577. Other scholars argue that the map was copied from an extant map of Toledo, specifically the Atlas de El Escorial. Three of the folios from this atlas contain preparatory radial graphs of a map of Toledo on their reverse, dating from between 1538 and 1545. The scholar first to lend this attribution was Francisco Vásquez Maure in 1982. His view was repeated by Antonio Crespo Sanz in his 2008 dissertation and in multiple later articles.
Atlas de El Escorial El Greco Seville Richard Kagan Spain Casa de Contratación Jorge Manuel Georgios Sideris painting Toledo