"View of Toledo" by El Greco is an oil painting. This painting is representational, the artist wanted to portray the city/landscape as real as possible for this period of time. If you look closely, the buildings are depicted realistically, and he doesn't ignore small details, such as trees on the back hills and windows in the main building. However, as you look to where the ground meets the sky, some may argue it is abstract. There isn't an exact line between the two, but instead dark, ominous colors and shades that look quite spherical. In my opinion, it looks like this painting was a portraying a scene immediately before a large storm. Metaphorically, this could mean there is chaos in the city, the capital building, or the church for that matter. As the calm daylight tries to fight off the coming storm, it is unstoppable. It actually looks like the coming of an apocalypse, before the beautiful city is drenched or ruined. Whether the artist meant for this to be interpreted metaphorically or literally is up for debate.

--Alexis Swoyer