How did El Greco arrange the crowded figures in El Espolio?

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El Greco *Burial of the Count de Orgaz*, oil on canvas by El Greco, 1586–88; in the church of Santo Tomé, Toledo, Spain.

In his masterpiece El Espolio (1577–79), El Greco arranged the crowded figures in a vertical and compact composition within the foreground. To achieve this effect, he employed a method of space elimination common among 16th-century Italian Mannerists.1

Additionally, the artist likely drew inspiration from late Byzantine traditions, utilizing the technique of superimposing heads row upon row to effectively suggest a dense crowd. This deliberate compositional choice was intended to emphasize the oppression of Christ by his tormentors.1