Two European paintings from the Metropolitan Museum of Art display very different approaches to the creation of atmospheric landscapes. In both these works, however, there is a similarity in the painters' view of the human element as an intrinsic part of the natural landscape that they depict. The View of Toledo (c. 1600) by Domenikos Theotokopoulos, known as El Greco, shows the Greek painter's adopted city of Toledo in Spain. Set against a stormy sky, selected parts of the city are displayed in a dramatic manner that effectively blends them with the landscape, giving them a status similar to, but apart from, that of the natural forms in the picture. A few tiny human figures hint at the strength of the human beings who created these forms that compete with the grander scale of nature. In The Weeders (1868), by the French painter Jules Breton, a group of women work close to the ground, mostly below the horizon line, and, except for one figure, seem to blend with the earth on which they labor. The single erect figure seems to bear the potentiality that human beings possess and which can transcend their relationship with the earth on which they depend. The expressionist qualities of El Greco's great work and the realism of Breton's painting contrast sharply. The two painters used very different means to explore related themes about humanity and nature.
In El Greco's painting a dark and stormy sky is filled with the forms of white and gray clouds that run from the horizon to the top of the picture and loom over the landscape. The mass of the city sits at the top of the hill on the right and runs down the hill toward the river and bridge at the center of the canvas. A few smaller buildings occupy some of the hills on the left side of the picture. The green-yellow range of the trees, hills and grasses in the lower part of the picture display a tonal range and contrast similar to that found in the white-gray-blue of the sky. T...