The painting "The Assumption of the Virgin" has a mannerist influence. Mannerism was a 16th century artistic style influenced by and at the same time a reaction to the harmonious ideals of the Italian High Renaissance. Mannerism is distinguished by its artificial (as opposed to naturalistic) qualities which favor tension and compositional instability rather than the balance and clarity of earlier Renaissance painting. El Greco's artistic training in Rome and Venice reflected the influence of Roman mannerist designs (e.g., the masterful art of Michelangelo). polished drawings) and that of the Venetian school of painting with the emphasis on the richness and variety of colors, the use of pigments to obtain the impression of depth and luminosity, represented by Tiziano. However, after his long stay in Toledo, Spain, El Greco's painting style transformed from one of marked Italian influence to one more personal and dramatic, in which artificial and unreal elements were intensified. However, his painting was not just the product of spiritual visions or emotional reactions, but of the intentional creation of artificial, anti-naturalistic art. Appreciating the development of El Greco's original artistic style is essential to understanding the religious context in which it flourished. El Greco lived in a time of theological renewal and zealous spiritual reform. Toledo, the city in which the painting "The Assumption of the Virgin" was created, was the ecclesiastical capital of Spain in the 16th century and a place of intense religious activity. This activity took place within the context of the spirit of the Catholic Counter-Reformation which encouraged the spiritual reformation of the individual and provided authoritative support for research middle of paper...... devotional images which inspired meditation, to series of “portraits” of the Apostles. Altarpieces were the main form of decoration in churches, consisting of paintings and sculptures in polychrome gilded wood in a frame following a Renaissance architectural style. This is the case of the painting "The Assumption of the Virgin" which was part of a private commission for the decoration of the convent church of Santo Domingo el Antiguo in Toledo, Spain. The decoration was centered on an altarpiece framing multiple images, of which the "Assumption" was the central painting of the lower level. Funds for the construction and decoration of the convent church came from the estate of a wealthy noblewoman, Maria de Silva. According to contemporary belief, it was implicitly assumed that the donor's salvation was guaranteed by his good works and charity..