El Greco

This article is about the artist of the Spanish Renaissance. For other uses, see El Greco (disambiguation).

El Greco
Portrait of a Man (presumed self-portrait of El Greco, c. 1595–1600) in Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City[1]
Born
Doménikos Theotokópoulos

1 October 1541
either Fodele or Candia, Crete
Died7 April 1614(1614-04-07) (aged 72)
Toledo, Spain
NationalityGreek
Known forPainting, sculpture and architecture
Notable work
Movement
Signature

Doménikos Theotokópoulos (Greek: Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος, IPA: [ðoˈminikos θeotoˈkopulos]; 1 October 1541 – 7 April 1614),[2] most widely known as El Greco (Spanish pronunciation: [el ˈgɾeko]; "The Greek"), was a Greek painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. El Greco was a nickname,[a] and the artist normally signed his paintings with his full birth name in Greek letters often adding the word Κρής (Krḗs), which means "Cretan" in Ancient Greek.

El Greco was born in the Kingdom of Candia (modern Crete), which was at that time part of the Republic of Venice, Italy, and the center of Post-Byzantine art. He trained and became a master within that tradition before traveling at age 26 to Venice, as other Greek artists had done.[6] In 1570, he moved to Rome, where he opened a workshop and executed a series of works. During his stay in Italy, El Greco enriched his style with elements of Mannerism and of the Venetian Renaissance taken from a number of great artists of the time, notably Tintoretto and Titian. In 1577, he moved to Toledo, Spain, where he lived and worked until his death. In Toledo, El Greco received several major commissions and produced his best-known paintings, such as View of Toledo and Opening of the Fifth Seal.

El Greco's dramatic and expressionistic style was met with puzzlement by his contemporaries but found appreciation by the 20th century. El Greco is regarded as a precursor of both Expressionism and Cubism, while his personality and works were a source of inspiration for poets and writers such as Rainer Maria Rilke and Nikos Kazantzakis. El Greco has been characterized by modern scholars as an artist so individual that he belongs to no conventional school.[3] He is best known for tortuously elongated figures and often fantastic or phantasmagorical pigmentation, marrying Byzantine traditions with those of Western painting.[7]

  1. ^ Portrait of an Old Man, ca. 1595–1600, El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos) Greek
  2. ^ Campoy, Antonio Manuel (31 July 1970). "Museo del Prado". Giner – via Google Books.
  3. ^ a b "Greco, El". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2002.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Cormack was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ P. Prevelakis, Theotocópoulos – Biography, 47
  6. ^ J. Brown, El Greco of Toledo, 75–77
  7. ^ M. Lambraki-Plaka, El Greco – The Greek, 60


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