In 1596 El Greco undertook to make the altarpiece for the church of the college, a seminary of the Augustinian order.
The popular name alludes to María de Córdoba y Aragón, the patron who paid for the works, lady of Queen Anne of Austria and daughter of Don Álvaro de Córdoba, senior knight of Philip II.
[1] El Greco was commissioned by the Council of Castile, which had taken charge of the works after the death of Doña María.
There are documents that attest that it was to be done in three years and the work was valued at just over sixty-three thousand reales, the highest price he got in his life.
However, there are no references to the number of paintings that formed it, nor to the structure of the altarpiece, nor to the subject matter.