Art, Vision, & the Disordered Eye - El Greco EL GRECO (1541-1614) Who was El Greco? The painter Doménikos Theotokópoulos, better known by his spanish name El Greco (The Greek), is considered by many to be one of the greatest painters in the history of European art. Relatively little, however, is known about his personal history, particularly the first 25 years or so following his birth in 1541 in Crete. He apparently descended from a wealthy and socially prominent family and early in his career received training in the Byzantine style of painting. This style is concerned with religious expression and more specifically the impersonal presentation of church theology in artistic terms. His Venetian citizenship (Crete was under the control of Venice) allowed El Greco at age 27 to begin the study of painting in Italy. He studied with Titian, who was considered one of the greatest painters of the time and El Greco adopted in his work the Venetian features of bright colours, movement, and dramatic light.

For a short period of time, El Greco lived in Rome where he was exposed to the work of Michelangelo, Raphael and Parmigiano. These artists practiced the style of Mannerism, which valued the portrayal of the nude in complex and artificial poses. The figures often have elongated limbs, small heads, and stylized facial features, which can be seen in exaggerated form in El Grecos later works. For reasons that remain unclear, El Greco left Italy for Spain in the springtime of 1577 . One of the most accepted explanations for the move was Philip IIs project of building the monastery of San Lorenzo at El Escorial, near Madrid. Despite the rejection of his sole painting for the King and the lack of further royal commissions, his work was highly popular. It was praised by the church and frequently copied well into the seventeenth century. In 1579, El Greco completed the first of two works that were commissioned for the church of Santo Domingo el Antigua in Toledo. The completion of the second work established a local reputation that would sustain El Greco for the rest of his life.

At about the same time, the most recognizable feature of El Grecos style emerged - the elongation of figures. The Burial of Count Orgaz (1586-88; Santo Tomé, Toledo) shown to the left, is universally recognized as El Grecos masterpiece. The picture commemorates the burial in 1323 of the Lord of Orgaz, a benefactor of the Church of Santo Tomé, when Saints Augustine and Stephen miraculously appeared and placed the deceased in his sepulcher. This vision is fabricated by an astonishing handling of brilliant colour and radiant light. El Grecos Mannerist method is nowhere more clearly expressed than here, as the frontal plane is where all of the action takes place. As his career progressed, the elongation of human figures in El Greco's work became more pronounced. This can be seen in his classic St. Martin and the Beggar shown below. His cultural blend of Greek, Italian, and Spanish, created a unique and inimitable style.

After El Grecos death in 1614, there were no followers who adopted his artistic style; his art was too individual and personal to be recreated. Is El Greco's Unique Style Explained by Astigmatism? It has been suggested that many painters including, Holbein, Cranach the elder, Botticelli, Titian, Modigliani, Sargent, and El Greco have suffered from astigmatism. This suggestion is based on the recogntion that astigmatism which induces unidirectional elongation in the perception of objects. For example, a cylindrical lens which is used to treat astigmatism, will cause an ellipse to be seen as a circle. Similarily viewing one of El Greco's paintings through a cylindrical lens in proper orientation and power, eliminates the distortions. However, there are several arguments that contradict this theory. First, it has been noted that El Grecos tendency for elongation is simply stylistic and can be traced back to both the Byzantine and Mannerist eras.

Secondly, El Grecos elongated distortions did not simply occur in one direction as would be expected with astigmatism; while most of his human bodies are stretched vertically, the fingers are stretched horizontally. Thirdly, in his most recognized work, The Burial of Count Orgaz (see above), the vertical disotortions are not uniform; there are normally proportioned figures as well as distorted ones. Fourth, El Grecos distortions progressed over his career. However, with astigmatism normally the axis does not increase in severity with age. Fifth, while the axis of astigmatism normally changes with age from the vertical axis ("with-the-rule astigmatism") to the horizontal axis ("against-the-rule astigmatism") there was no indication of this change in El Greco's work. Lastly, and perhaps most conclusively, X-ray analyses of some of El Greco's works reveals that the underlying figures were painted in normal proportions. Thus it is probably more reasonable to conclude that the distorted tendencies in El Grecos works are attributed to a purposeful style and not a visual abnormality.

El Greco (also known as Domenikos Theotokopoulos), Art History & Styles of Art - Art.com Wiki 6 Some Examples of “El Greco’s” Artwork Personal life El Greco was born in 1641 on the island of Crete. After beginning his artistic training in Crete, he moved on to Venice and Rome before settling in the Spanish city of Toledo. In Rome, the painter espoused unpopular views on the artistic abilities of some of the most famous Renaissance painters. The artist had a single son, Jorge Manuel, in 1578. Jorge’s mother has been named as Jeronima de las Cuevas. The couple are not thought to have married, although she was named in his short will. He died in Toledo in 1614, leaving his possessions to his son and Jeronima. Career He began his career as a Byzantine icon painter on the Venice-controlled island of Crete. He would later reject his early realism as his artistic expression entered imaginative periods. Few of his works prior to his move to Venice have survived.

During his three-year stay in Venice, the artist completed a number of important works in the Renaissance style, including The Miracle of Christ Healing the Blind. Still searching for realism in his work, he began to use perspective in his large paintings of Biblical scenes. Once he moved to Rome, he received no large-scale commissions, but he did earn a reputation as one of the best portrait and small-scale painters of the Renaissance period. He painted several celebrated portraits between 1590 and 1600, including Saint Jerome as Cardinal. In 1576, the artist settled in Toledo, where he found a group of intellectuals willing to commission religious altarpieces and large landscapes . He painted The View of Toledo, one of the best-known landscapes in sixteenth-century European art, soon after his arrival. His large altarpieces included Christ Driving the Traders from the Temple and The Burial of Count Orgaz, arguably his most famous work. Outside the influences of his Renaissance peers, he began to reject realism in earnest. By the start of the seventeenth century, his style turned to the mannerism for which he is best remembered.

Fun Facts El Greco translates into English as “The Greek” and reflects his birthplace on the island of Crete. During his time in Rome, he publicly questioned the artistic ability of Michelangelo . The resulting backlash hastened his move from Rome to Toledo. His son Jorge Manuel appears in the famous paintingThe Burial of Count Orgaz. Related Artists El Greco Biography Self-Portrait 1604 El Greco's dramatic and expressionistic style was met with puzzlement by his contemporaries but found appreciation in 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. He is best known for tortuously elongated figures and often fantastic or phantasmagorical pigmentation, marrying Byzantine traditions with those of Western painting.

Early years and family Born in 1541 in either the village of Fodele or Candia (the Venetian name of Chandax, present day Heraklion) in Crete, El Greco was descended from a prosperous urban family, which had probably been driven out of Chania to Candia after an uprising against the Venetians between 1526 and 1528. El Greco's father, Georgios Theotokopoulos (d. 1556), was a merchant and tax collector. Nothing is known about his mother or his first wife, a Greek woman. El Greco's older brother, Manoussos Theotokopoulos (1531 - December 13, 1604), was a wealthy merchant and spent the last years of his life (1603-1604) in El Greco's Toledo home. El Greco received his initial training as an icon painter of the Cretan school, the leading centre of post-Byzantine art.

In addition to painting, he probably studied the classics of ancient Greece, and perhaps the Latin classics also; he left a "working library" of 130 books at his death, including the Bible in Greek and an annotated Vasari. Candia was a center for artistic activity where Eastern and Western cultures co-existed harmoniously, where around two hundred painters were active during the 16th century, and had organized a painters' guild, based on the Italian model. In 1563, at the age of twenty-two, El Greco was described in a document as a "master" ("maestro Domenigo"), meaning he was already a master of the guild and presumably operating his own workshop. Three years later, in June 1566, as a witness to a contract, he signed his name as Master Menegos Theotokopoulos, painter. Most scholars believe that the Theotocopoulos "family was almost certainly Greek Orthodox", although some Catholic sources still claim him from birth. Like many Orthodox emigrants to Europe, he apparently transferred to Catholicism after his arrival, and certainly practiced as a Catholic in Spain, where he described himself as a "devout Catholic" in his will.

The extensive archival research conducted since the early 1960s by scholars, such as Nikolaos Panayotakis, Pandelis Prevelakis and Maria Constantoudaki, indicates strongly that El Greco's family and ancestors were Greek Orthodox. One of his uncles was an Orthodox priest, and his name is not mentioned in the Catholic archival baptismal records on Crete. Prevelakis goes even further, expressing his doubt that El Greco was ever a practicing Roman Catholic. Italy Christ Healing the Blind 1570s Crete having been a possession of the Republic of Venice since 1211, it was natural for the young El Greco to pursue his career in Venice. Though the exact year is not clear, most scholars agree that El Greco went to Venice around 1567. Knowledge of El Greco's years in Italy is limited. He lived in Venice until 1570 and, according to a letter written by his much older friend, the greatest miniaturist of the age, the Croatian Giulio Clovio, was a "disciple" of Titian, who was by then in his eighties but still vigorous.

This may mean he worked in Titian's large studio, or not. Clovio characterized El Greco as "a rare talent in painting". In 1570 El Greco moved to Rome, where he executed a series of works strongly marked by his Venetian apprenticeship. It is unknown how long he remained in Rome, though he may have returned to Venice (c. 1575-1576) before he left for Spain. In Rome, on the recommendation of Giulio Clovio, El Greco was received as a guest at the Palazzo Farnese, which Cardinal Alessandro Farnese had made a centre of the artistic and intellectual life of the city. There he came into contact with the intellectual elite of the city, including the Roman scholar Fulvio Orsini, whose collection would later include seven paintings by the artist (View of Mt. Sinai and a portrait of Clovio are among them). Unlike other Cretan artists who had moved to Venice, El Greco substantially altered his style and sought to distinguish himself by inventing new and unusual interpretations of traditional religious subject matter.

His works painted in Italy were influenced by the Venetian Renaissance style of the period, with agile, elongated figures reminiscent of Tintoretto and a chromatic framework that connects him to Titian. The Venetian painters also taught him to organize his multi-figured compositions in landscapes vibrant with atmospheric light. Clovio reports visiting El Greco on a summer's day while the artist was still in Rome. El Greco was sitting in a darkened room, because he found the darkness more conducive to thought than the light of the day, which disturbed his "inner light". As a result of his stay in Rome, his works were enriched with elements such as violent perspective vanishing points or strange attitudes struck by the figures with their repeated twisting and turning and tempestuous gestures; all elements of Mannerism. By the time El Greco arrived in Rome, Michelangelo and Raphael were dead, but their example continued to be paramount and left little room for different approaches. Although the artistic heritage of these great masters was overwhelming for young painters, El Greco was determined to make his own mark in Rome defending his personal artistic views, ideas and style.

He singled out Correggio and Parmigianino for particular praise, but he did not hesitate to dismiss Michelangelo's Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel; he extended an offer to Pope Pius V to paint over the whole work in accord with the new and stricter Catholic thinking. When he was later asked what he thought about Michelangelo, El Greco replied that "he was a good man, but he did not know how to paint". And thus we are confronted by a paradox: El Greco is said to have reacted most strongly or even condemned Michelangelo, but he had found it impossible to withstand his influence. Michelangelo's influence can be seen in later El Greco works such as the Allegory of the Holy League. By painting portraits of Michelangelo, Titian, Clovio and, presumably, Raphael in one of his works (The Purification of the Temple), El Greco not only expressed his gratitude but advanced the claim to rival these masters. As his own commentaries indicate, El Greco viewed Titian, Michelangelo and Raphael as models to emulate.

In his 17th century Chronicles, Giulio Mancini included El Greco among the painters who had initiated, in various ways, a re-evaluation of Michelangelo's teachings. Because of his unconventional artistic beliefs (such as his dismissal of Michelangelo's technique) and personality, El Greco soon acquired enemies in Rome. Architect and writer Pirro Ligorio called him a "foolish foreigner", and newly discovered archival material reveals a skirmish with Farnese, who obliged the young artist to leave his palace. On July 6, 1572, El Greco officially complained about this event. A few months later, on September 18, 1572, El Greco paid his dues to the Guild of Saint Luke in Rome as a miniature painter. At the end of that year, El Greco opened his own workshop and hired as assistants the painters Lattanzio Bonastri de Lucignano and Francisco Preboste. Spain the Name of Jesus 1578-79 Immigration to Toledo In 1577, El Greco emigrated first to Madrid, then to Toledo, where he produced his mature works.

At the time, Toledo was the religious capital of Spain and a populous city with "an illustrious past, a prosperous present and an uncertain future". In Rome, El Greco had earned the respect of some intellectuals, but was also facing the hostility of certain art critics. During the 1570s the huge monastery-palace of El Escorial was still under construction and Philip II of Spain was experiencing difficulties in finding good artists for the many large paintings required to decorate it. Titian was dead, and Tintoretto, Veronese and Anthonis Mor all refused to come to Spain. Philip had had to rely on the lesser talent of Juan Fernandes de Navarrete, whose gravedad y decoro ("seriousness and decorum") the king approved. However, he had just died in 1579; the moment should have been ideal for El Greco. Through Clovio and Orsini, El Greco met Benito Arias Montano, a Spanish humanist and agent of Philip; Pedro Chacon, a clergyman; and Luis de Castilla, son of Diego de Castilla, the dean of the Cathedral of Toledo.

El Greco's friendship with Castilla would secure his first large commissions in Toledo. He arrived in Toledo by July 1577, and signed contracts for a group of paintings that was to adorn the church of Santo Domingo el Antiguo in Toledo and for the renowned El Espolio. By September 1579 he had completed nine paintings for Santo Domingo, including The Trinity and The Assumption of the Virgin. These works would establish the painter's reputation in Toledo. El Greco did not plan to settle permanently in Toledo, since his final aim was to win the favor of Philip and make his mark in his court. Indeed, he did manage to secure two important commissions from the monarch: Allegory of the Holy League and Martyrdom of St. Maurice. However, the king did not like these works and placed the St Maurice altarpiece in the chapter-house rather than the intended chapel. He gave no further commissions to El Greco. The exact reasons for the king's dissatisfaction remain unclear.

Some scholars have suggested that Philip did not like the inclusion of living persons in a religious scene; some others that El Greco's works violated a basic rule of the Counter-Reformation, namely that in the image the content was paramount rather than the style. Philip took a close interest in his artistic commissions, and had very decided tastes; a long sought-after sculpted Crucifixion by Benvenuto Cellini also failed to please when it arrived, and was likewise exiled to a less prominent place. Philip's next experiment, with Federigo Zuccaro was even less successful. In any case, Philip's dissatisfaction ended any hopes of royal patronage El Greco may have had. Mature works and later years Immaculate Conception 1608-13 Immigration to Toledo Lacking the favor of the king, El Greco was obliged to remain in Toledo, where he had been received in 1577 as a great painter.

According to Hortensio Felix Paravicino, a 17th-century Spanish preacher and poet, "Crete gave him life and the painter's craft, Toledo a better homeland, where through Death he began to achieve eternal life." In 1585, he appears to have hired an assistant, Italian painter Francisco Preboste, and to have established a workshop capable of producing altar frames and statues as well as paintings. On March 12, 1586 he obtained the commission for The Burial of the Count of Orgaz, now his best-known work. The decade 1597 to 1607 was a period of intense activity for El Greco. During these years he received several major commissions, and his workshop created pictorial and sculptural ensembles for a variety of religious institutions. Among his major commissions of this period were three altars for the Chapel of San Jose in Toledo (1597-1599); three paintings (1596-1600) for the Colegio de Dona Maria de Aragon, an Augustinian monastery in Madrid, and the high altar, four lateral altars, and the painting St.

Ildefonso for the Capilla Mayor of the Hospital de la Caridad (Hospital of Charity) at Illescas (1603-1605). The minutes of the commission of The Virgin of the Immaculate Conception (1607-1613), which were composed by the personnel of the municipality, describe El Greco as "one of the greatest men in both this kingdom and outside it". Between 1607 and 1608 El Greco was involved in a protracted legal dispute with the authorities of the Hospital of Charity at Illescas concerning payment for his work, which included painting, sculpture and architecture;i] this and other legal disputes contributed to the economic difficulties he experienced towards the end of his life. In 1608, he received his last major commission: for the Hospital of Saint John the Baptist in Toledo. El Greco made Toledo his home. Surviving contracts mention him as the tenant from 1585 onwards of a complex consisting of three apartments and twenty-four rooms which belonged to the Marquis de Villena. It was in these apartments, which also served as his workshop, that he passed the rest of his life, painting and studying.

He lived in considerable style, sometimes employing musicians to play whilst he dined. It is not confirmed whether he lived with his Spanish female companion, Jeronima de Las Cuevas, whom he probably never married. She was the mother of his only son, Jorge Manuel, born in 1578, who also became a painter, assisted his father, and continued to repeat his compositions for many years after he inherited the studio. In 1604, Jorge Manuel and Alfonsa de los Morales gave birth to El Greco's grandson, Gabriel, who was baptized by Gregorio Angulo, governor of Toledo and a personal friend of the artist. During the course of the execution of a commission for the Hospital Tavera, El Greco fell seriously ill, and a month later, on April 7, 1614, he died. A few days earlier, on March 31, he had directed that his son should have the power to make his will. Two Greeks, friends of the painter, witnessed this last will and testament (El Greco never lost touch with his Greek origins). He was buried in the Church of Santo Domingo el Antigua.

(From Wikipedia) Not available Not available Cretan-born painter Domenikos Theotokopoulos, better known by his Spanish nickname, El Greco (c.1541-1614), studied under Titian in Venice before settling down in Toledo. Commissioned by the church and local nobility, El Greco produced dramatic paintings marked by distorted figures and vibrant color contrasted with subtle grays. Though his work was appreciated by his contemporaries, especially intellectuals, it wasn’t until the 20th century that it was widely embraced and admired, influencing in particular the Expressionist and Cubist movements. About the series Domenicos Theotokopoulos- El Greco - Cretan Painter Great painter famous as "EL GRECO" (Fodele Iraklion Crete 1541 - Toledo Spain 1614) Domenikos Theotokopoulos, was born in Fodele , a village near Iraklion in the island of Crete, about 1541. He grew up in an idyllic surrounding, a ravine through which a river runs among groves and huge planes. In such an environment his character and his artistic ideas formed.

Perhaps the small Byzantine church of "Virgin Mary", inspired him to treat religious themes and sacred items, and to express his feelings through such work. Later on he at the monastery of Saint Catherine in Candia (Iraklion), he was thoroughly trained, by the Sinai Friars, in the Byzantine tradition of icon painting and fell under the influence of the Cretan School, and it was here tha his expressive style first formed. In 1566, at the age of 25, already counted as a "master painter", Theotokopoulos left Crete, to seek wider horizons, and better fortune. First stop was Venice. (At that time Crete was part of the Venetian Empire). He stayed at Venice for about four years and completed his artistic training near Titian and the great painters of the High Renaissance such as Tintoretto, Veronese and Bassano. Next stop was Rome, in about 1570 where he worked on architecture and sculpture and met famous artists. He felt, however, that the opportunities did not fit to his talent and as an "eternal exile" he left to Spain.

In Madrid, he worked for the Spanish King Philip II in the decoration of the Escorial Palace. His idea of art and his interpretation of themes were not fully understood by Philip, and so in 1577 Theotokopoulos went to Toledo. At Toledo, which was at that time the biggest religious and spiritual center of Spain, Theotokopoulos came to work on the shrine of Santo Domingo el Antigono. He loved Toledo as his second native land, and in 1584, he decided to settle there permanently. Though he never married her, here he found Dona Jeronima de la Cuevas, the woman who loved and respected, and had, with her a son, Jorge- Manuel. In Toledo his genius came into full flowering, and Theotokopoulos lived there working until his death in 1614. His Art El Greco's art is the product of both his time and his genius. The artistic currents and the places he visited, are reflected in his work. It is more difficult to outline precisely the influence of the Cretan School in his work.

It is certain that he was trained in the art of the icon in the Cretan style but his works shows most clearly an absolute dependence of the Venetian School of the sixteenth century. The influence of Titian is obvious and there is also a heavy debt to Tintoretto, whose anti naturalistic style, above all, in dealing with the human figure, deeply influenced El Greco. Without exaggerating one can estimate the number of El Greco's works at about 500. There are some landscapes and a few portraits, but the vast majority are of religious themes: "Assumption", "Holy Trinity", "St John the Evangelist", "St. Sebastian", "Saints Peter and Paul", "Christ embracing the Cross", "Resurrection", "Annunciation", "St. Andrew", "Pentecost", "Baptism of Christ" The most illustrious of his paintings are "Burial of the Conde de Orgaz", El Espolio", "Martyrdom of St. Maurice", "Laocoon", "Vision of Apocalypse" and "View of Toledo". The Holy Family with Ann and St. John.

Santa Cruz museum (Toledo 1585) St John with Christ. (detail) Toledo 1597-1599 El Greco | The Metropolitan Museum of Art Exhibition dates: October 7, 2003-January 11, 2004 Exhibition location: Special exhibition galleries, second floor Press preview: Monday, September 29, 10:00 a.m. - noon The first major retrospective in more than 20 years devoted to the great 16th-century painter Domenikos Theotokopoulos (1541-1614) – known to posterity as El Greco – will open at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on October 7, 2003. One of the most original artists of his age, El Greco was celebrated for his highly expressive and visionary religious paintings. The international loan exhibition's approximately 80 works include an unsurpassed selection of his psychologically compelling portraits, as well as his rare incursions into landscape, genre, mythology, and sculpture.

Particular emphasis will be placed on his late works, in which mystical content, expressive distortions, and monumental scale are taken to ever greater extremes, culminating in the Adoration of Shepherds, the spectacular nine-foot-tall painting created to decorate his own tomb. All aspects of the artist's activity will be explored, from his beginnings as an icon painter in his native Crete, to his move to Venice and Rome and his study of Italian art, to his definitive move to Toledo, Spain, and his creation of a uniquely personal and deeply spiritual style. His work has sometimes been associated with the great mystics of Counter-Reformation Spain, but his paintings have had a profound influence on the protagonists of 20th-century modernism, including Pablo Picasso and Jackson Pollock. El Greco will remain on view at the Metropolitan through January 11, 2004. The exhibition is funded by the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation in celebration of its 25th Anniversary. The exhibition has been organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and The National Gallery, London.

"In his own time," stated Philippe de Montebello, Director of the Metropolitan Museum, "El Greco's highly personal style – with its dematerialization of the figure and its expressive effects of light and color – was without precedent and often astonished his contemporaries. Yet it is only in the last 150 years that he has come to be appreciated as one of the great creative geniuses of Western art. This landmark gathering of his works, which has been organized by an international team of scholars, builds on the last major El Greco exhibition of 1982 with a greater focus on the artist's late and most mystical phase, and the philosophical and religious thought that informed it." A unique synthesis of late medieval Byzantine traditions and the art of the Italian Renaissance, El Greco's art sought to create a new and spiritually more intense relationship between viewer and image. Although he established a large and productive workshop in Toledo, he founded no school, and for almost two centuries following his death his works were decried for their extravagance—except for his astonishing portraits, which Velÿzquez took as his model.

A sympathetic interest in his art was the product of the 19th-century Romantic movement's new emphasis on individual expression and extremes of emotion. Since then El Greco's creative stature has never been challenged. Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin saw themselves as his artistic heirs. More recently, his works have inspired the expressive abstractions of generations of 20th-century painters. The 1982 exhibition of his works was seen in Madrid, Washington, Toledo, Ohio, and Dallas. The Dormition of the Virgin (Syros, Church of the Dormition) and St. Luke Painting the Virgin (Athens, Benaki Museum) are among the rare, early works documenting El Greco's first training as a painter of religious icons in his birthplace of Crete. The archaizing abstractions of these images – based on late medieval prototypes – reflect his country's continuing reverence for the Byzantine traditions of its Greek heritage. The style and sacred function of Byzantine icons, which rejected mimesis in favor of an attempt to mystically embody the living presence of the divine, greatly shaped El Greco's approach to religious art.

Throughout his career, he always signed his works with his Greek name, Domenikos Theotokopoulos. A number of key works illustrate the transforming effects of El Greco's stay in Italy, beginning with his arrival in Venice, in 1567, and his subsequent stay in Rome, from 1570 until 1577. Christ Driving the Money-Changers from the Temple (ca. 1570, Minneapolis Institute of Arts), with its deep, stage-like space, bold brushwork, and dramatic lighting, shows the powerful influence of Titian as well as the Venetian mannerist Tintoretto. During the Counter Reformation the theme, reprised several times by El Greco, was interpreted as the purification of the Church. Works from the artist's sojourn in Rome display El Greco's study of the art of Michelangelo and his awareness of Italian art theory. He became a member of a small circle of antiquarians. The Boy Lighting a Candle (Museo Nazionale di Capodimente, Naples) is a rare and charming example of El Greco's excursion into genre painting as well as an emulation of a celebrated lost work of ancient art.

In 1577 El Greco traveled to Spain, where he hoped to find royal patronage – unsuccessfully, as it turned out. Instead, he settled permanently in Toledo, still an intellectual and religious center of the country. Once again, he found his place among a circle of scholars and church reformers who appreciated his signature style, with its elongated, undulating forms and sometimes dissonant colors. The Adoration of the Name of Jesus was among the first works painted by El Greco in Spain – perhaps an attempt to attract the attention of Philip II, who is shown kneeling in the foreground. The artist painted two versions of this religious allegory, which will be shown together for the first time. Although the larger of the two versions found a place in Philip II's grandiose palace, the Escorial, El Greco did not become one of the king's artists. The increasingly ethereal and otherworldly quality of his religious works can be traced in a series of important canvases from the 1580s and 1590s, including Christ on the Cross Adored by Donors (ca.

1585-90, Musée du Louvre, Paris); The Agony in the Garden (The Toledo Museum of Art); Madonna and Child with Saint Martina and Saint Agnes and Saint Martin and the Beggar (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.); and The Resurrection (Museo del Prado, Madrid). In the Resurrection (ca. 1597-1604, Museo del Prado), one of El Greco's most celebrated works, expressive distortion and mystical drama are taken to unprecedented extremes. Emerging from the tomb with an almost explosive force, Christ acts as a magnet, pulling the figures below, drawn out to impossible lengths, heavenward. El Greco's artistic explorations of spirituality and mysticism culminate in Adoration of the Shepherds (1614, Museo del Prado), designed to hang above the artist's tomb. Here, the body of the infant Christ, tiny on the ten-foot-tall canvas, emits an incandescent glow that illuminates the entire composition. Heavenly as well as earthly worshippers appear to be weightless, slowly spiraling in adoration around his form.

The painting is an unrivaled example of El Greco's visual expression of ecstatic union with the divine. The exhibition also brings together El Greco's finest portraits, notable for their probing explorations of character and psychological intensity. Among the most famous example is the Portrait of a Cardinal, probably Don Fernando Niño de Guevara (ca. 1600, The Metropolitan Museum of Art), whose piercing gaze suggest the stern rectitude with which he carried out his duties. The exhibition also includes El Greco's compelling portrayal of the young cleric Fray Hortensio Felix Paravicino (1609, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). A noted poet and professor of rhetoric, he was one of El Greco's admirers in Toledo and dedicated four poems to the artist. Rare examples of El Greco's activities as a landscape painter include his famous View of Toledo (1600-10, The Metropolitan Museum of Art), sometimes considered the first expressionist landscape in Western art. Also on view will be The Laocoön (ca.

1600-10, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.), a late work in which El Greco openly vied with the celebrated first-century sculpture in the Vatican signed by Hagesandros, Polydoros and Athenodoros of Rhodes. The subject, taken from Virgil's Aeneid, concerns the gods' punishment of the Trojan priest Laocoön in front of the walls of Troy, which El Greco shows as Toledo. The writhing forms and expressions of despair and physical pain make it one of his most powerful works. Following its showing at the Metropolitan, El Greco will be on view at The National Gallery, London, from February 11 through May 23, 2004. The guest curator of the exhibition is Professor David Davies, a noted El Greco scholar. He has been assisted by Gabriele Finaldi, formerly of The National Gallery, London, and now associate director of the Museo del Prado, Madrid; Xavier Bray, assistant curator at The National Gallery, London; and Keith Christiansen, Jayne Wrightsman Curator in the Department of European Paintings at the Metropolitan Museum.

El Greco is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, authored by a team of international scholars, including: Professor Davies; Sir John Elliott, Regius Professor Emeritus of Modern History at the University of Oxford; Gabriele Finaldi; Keith Christiansen; and Xavier Bray. The catalogue, which will be available in the Museum's book shop in hardcover ($65) and paperback ($40) editions, is published by The National Gallery, London, and distributed by Yale University Press. A variety of educational programs will be offered in conjunction with the exhibition, including lectures and gallery talks. Three slide-illustrated lectures on the history, work, and time of El Greco – by the scholars Jonathan Brown of the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, Richard Kagan of Johns Hopkins University, and Marcus Burke of The Hispanic Society, New York – will be presented on Sunday, November 9, from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. These programs are free to the public with Museum admission.

An Audio Guide of the exhibition will be available; the fee for rentals will be $5.00 for members of the Museum, $6.00 for non-members, and $4.00 for children under 12. The Audio Guide program is sponsored by Bloomberg. The exhibition will be featured on the Museum's Web site, # # # El Greco | Spanish artist | Britannica.com Spanish artist Andrea del Castagno El Greco, byname of Doménikos Theotokópoulos (born 1541, Candia [Iráklion], Crete —died April 7, 1614, Toledo , Spain ), master of Spanish painting , whose highly individual dramatic and expressionistic style met with the puzzlement of his contemporaries but gained newfound appreciation in the 20th century. He also worked as a sculptor and as an architect.

Burial of the Count de Orgaz, oil on canvas by El Greco, … Chuch of Santo Tome, Toledo, Spain/SuperStock Early life and works El Greco never forgot that he was of Greek descent and usually signed his paintings in Greek letters with his full name, Doménikos Theotokópoulos. He is, nevertheless, generally known as El Greco (“the Greek”), a name he acquired when he lived in Italy, where the custom of identifying a man by designating country or city of origin was a common practice. The curious form of the article (El), however, may be the Venetian dialect or more likely from the Spanish. Because Crete, his homeland, was then a Venetian possession and he was a Venetian citizen, he decided to go to Venice to study. The exact year in which this took place is not known; but speculation has placed the date anywhere from 1560, when he was 19, to 1566. In Venice he entered the studio of Titian , who was the greatest painter of the day. Knowledge of El Greco’s years in Italy is limited.

A letter of November 16, 1570, written by Giulio Clovio , an illuminator in the service of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, requested lodging in the Palazzo Farnese for “a young man from Candia, a pupil of Titian.” On July 8, 1572, “the Greek painter” is mentioned in a letter sent from Rome by a Farnese official to the same cardinal. Shortly thereafter, on September 18, 1572, “Dominico Greco” paid his dues to the guild of St. Luke in Rome. How long the young artist remained in Rome is unknown, because he may have returned to Venice, about 1575–76, before he left for Spain. The certain works painted by El Greco in Italy are completely in the Venetian Renaissance style of the 16th century. They show no effect of his Byzantine heritage except possibly in the faces of old men—for example, in the Christ Healing the Blind. The placing of figures in deep space and the emphasis on an architectural setting in High Renaissance style are particularly significant in his early pictures, such as Christ Cleansing the Temple.

The first evidence of El Greco’s extraordinary gifts as a portraitist appears in Italy in a portrait of Giulio Clovio and Vincentio Anastagi. Middle years Ringling Bros. Folds Its Tent El Greco first appeared in Spain in the spring of 1577, initially at Madrid, later in Toledo. One of his main reasons for seeking a new career in Spain must have been knowledge of Philip II’s great project, the building of the monastery of San Lorenzo at El Escorial , some 26 miles (42 km) northwest of Madrid. Moreover, the Greek must have met important Spanish churchmen in Rome through Fulvio Orsini, a humanist and librarian of the Palazzo Farnese. It is known that at least one Spanish ecclesiastic who spent some time in Rome at this period— Luis de Castilla—became El Greco’s intimate friend and was eventually named one of the two executors of his last testament. Luis’ brother, Diego de Castilla, gave El Greco his first commission in Spain, which possibly had been promised before the artist left Italy.

In 1578 Jorge Manuel, the painter’s only son, was born at Toledo, the offspring of Doña Jerónima de Las Cuevas. She appears to have outlived El Greco, and, although he acknowledged both her and his son, he never married her. That fact has puzzled all writers, because he mentioned her in various documents, including his last testament. It may be that El Greco had married unhappily in his youth in Crete or Italy and therefore could not legalize another attachment. Art & Architecture: Fact or Fiction? For the rest of his life El Greco continued to live in Toledo, busily engaged on commissions for the churches and monasteries there and in the province. He became a close friend of the leading humanists, scholars, and churchmen. Antonio de Covarrubias, a classical scholar and son of the architect Alonso de Covarrubias, was a friend whose portrait he painted. Fray Hortensio Paravicino, the head of the Trinitarian order in Spain and a favourite preacher of Philip II of Spain, dedicated four sonnets to El Greco, one of them recording his own portrait by the artist.

Luis de Góngora y Argote , one of the major literary figures of the late 16th century, composed a sonnet to the tomb of the painter. Another writer, Don Pedro de Salazar de Mendoza, figured among the most intimate circle of El Greco’s entourage. Britannica Lists & Quizzes Editor Picks: Exploring 10 Types of Basketball Movies The inventories compiled after his death confirm the fact that he was a man of extraordinary culture—a true Renaissance humanist . His library, which gives some idea of the breadth and range of his interests, included works of the major Greek authors in Greek, numerous books in Latin, and others in Italian and in Spanish: Plutarch’s Lives, Petrarch’s poetry, Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso, the Bible in Greek, the proceedings of the Council of Trent , and architectural treatises by Marcus Vitruvius Pollio , Giacomo da Vignola , Leon Battista Alberti , Andrea Palladio , and Sebastiano Serlio . El Greco himself prepared an edition of Vitruvius, accompanied by drawings, but the manuscript is lost.

In 1585 and thereafter El Greco lived in the large, late-medieval palace of the Marqués de Villena. Although it is near the site of the now-destroyed Villena Palace, the museum in Toledo called the Casa y Museo del Greco (“Home and Museum of El Greco”) was never his residence. It can be assumed that he needed space for his atelier more than for luxurious living. In 1605 the palace was listed by the historian Francisco de Pisa as one of the handsomest in the city; it was not a miserable ruined structure, as some romantic writers have presumed. El Greco surely lived in considerable comfort, even though he did not leave a large estate at his death. El Greco’s first commission in Spain was for the high altar and the two lateral altars in the conventual church of Santo Domingo el Antiguo at Toledo (1577–79). Never before had the artist had a commission of such importance and scope. Even the architectural design of the altar frames, reminiscent of the style of the Venetian architect Palladio, was prepared by El Greco.

The painting for the high altar, Assumption of the Virgin , also marked a new period in the artist’s life, revealing the full extent of his genius. The figures are brought close into the foreground, and in the Apostles a new brilliance of colour is achieved. The technique remains Venetian in the laying on of the paint and in the liberal use of white highlights; yet the intensity of the colours and the manipulation of contrasts, verging on dissonance , is distinctly El Greco. For the first time, the importance of his assimilation of the art of Michelangelo comes to the fore, particularly in the painting of the Trinity, in the upper part of the high altar, where the powerful sculpturesque body of the nude Christ leaves no doubt of the ultimate source of inspiration. In the lateral altar painting of the Resurrection, the poses of the standing soldiers and the contrapposto (a position in which the upper and lower parts of the body are contrasted in direction) of those asleep are also clearly Michelangelesque in inspiration.

The Assumption of the Virgin, oil on canvas by El Greco, 1577; in the … Nancy Atwood Sprague in memory of Albert Arnold Sprague, 1906.99/Photography © The Art Institute of Chicago Connect with Britannica Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram Pinterest At the same time, El Greco created another masterpiece of extraordinary originality—the Espolio (Disrobing of Christ). In designing the composition vertically and compactly in the foreground he seems to have been motivated by the desire to show the oppression of Christ by his cruel tormentors. He chose a method of space elimination that is common to middle and late 16th-century Italian painters known as Mannerists, and at the same time he probably recalled late Byzantine paintings in which the superposition of heads row upon row is employed to suggest a crowd. The original altar of gilded wood that El Greco designed for the painting has been destroyed, but his small sculptured group of the Miracle of St. Ildefonso still survives on the lower centre of the frame. El Greco’s tendency to elongate the human figure becomes more notable at this time—for example, in the handsome and unrestored St. Sebastian.

The same extreme elongation of body is also present in Michelangelo’s work, in the painting of the Venetians Tintoretto and Paolo Veronese , and in the art of the leading Mannerist painters. The increased slenderness of Christ’s long body against the dramatic clouds in Crucifixion with Donors foreshadows the artist’s late style. Trending Topics Opium Wars El Greco’s connection with the court of Philip II was brief and unsuccessful, consisting first of the Allegory of the Holy League (Dream of Philip II; 1578–79) and second of the Martyrdom of St. Maurice (1580–82). The latter painting did not meet with the approval of the king, who promptly ordered another work of the same subject to replace it. Thus ended the great artist’s connection with the Spanish court. The king may have been troubled by the almost shocking brilliance of the yellows as contrasted to the ultramarine in the costumes of the main group of the painting, which includes St. Maurice in the centre. On the other hand, to the modern eye El Greco’s daring use of colour is particularly appealing.

The brushwork remains Venetian in the way that the colour suggests form and in the free illusionistic and atmospheric creation of space. The Burial of the Count de Orgaz (1586–88) is universally regarded as El Greco’s masterpiece. The supernatural vision of Gloria (“Heaven”) above and the impressive array of portraits represent all aspects of this extraordinary genius’s art. El Greco clearly distinguished between heaven and earth: above, heaven is evoked by swirling icy clouds, semiabstract in their shape, and the saints are tall and phantomlike; below, all is normal in the scale and proportions of the figures. According to the legend , Saints Augustine and Stephen appeared miraculously to lay the Count de Orgaz in his tomb as a reward for his generosity to their church. In golden and red vestments they bend reverently over the body of the count, who is clad in magnificent armour that reflects the yellow and reds of the other figures. The young boy at the left is El Greco’s son, Jorge Manuel; on a handkerchief in his pocket is inscribed the artist’s signature and the date 1578, the year of the boy’s birth.

The men in contemporary 16th-century dress who attend the funeral are unmistakably prominent members of Toledan society. El Greco’s Mannerist method of composition is nowhere more clearly expressed than here, where all of the action takes place in the frontal plane. Burial of the Count de Orgaz, oil on canvas by El Greco, … Chuch of Santo Tome, Toledo, Spain/SuperStock Later life and works From 1590 until his death El Greco’s painterly output was prodigious. His pictures for the churches and convents of the Toledan region include the Holy Family with the Magdalen and the Holy Family with St. Anne. He repeated several times the Agony in the Garden, in which a supernatural world is evoked through strange shapes and brilliant, cold, clashing colours. The devotional theme of Christ Carrying the Cross is known in 11 originals by El Greco and many copies. El Greco depicted most of the major saints, often repeating the same composition: St. Dominic, Mary Magdalen, St. Jerome as cardinal, St. Jerome in penitence, and St. Peter in tears. St.

Francis of Assisi, however, was by far the saint most favoured by the artist; about 25 originals representing St. Francis survive and, in addition, more than 100 pieces by followers. The most popular of several types was St. Francis and Brother Leo Meditating on Death. An Allegory (Fábula), oil on canvas by El Greco, 1580–85. 67 × … Imagno/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Two major series ( Apostolados) survive representing Christ and the Twelve Apostles in 13 canvases: one in the sacristy of Toledo Cathedral (1605–10) and another, unfinished set (1612–14) in the El Greco House and Museum at Toledo. The frontal pose of the Christ blessing in this series suggests a medieval Byzantine figure, although the colour and brushwork are El Greco’s personal handling of Venetian technique. In these works the devotional intensity of mood reflects the religious spirit of Roman Catholic Spain in the period of the Counter-Reformation .

Although Greek by descent and Italian by artistic preparation, the artist became so immersed in the religious environment of Spain that he became the most vital visual representative of Spanish mysticism . Yet, because of the combination of these three cultures , he developed into an artist so individual that he belongs to no conventional school but is a lonely genius of unprecedented emotional power and imagination. Several major commissions came El Greco’s way in the last 15 years of his life: three altars for the Chapel of San José , Toledo (1597–99); three paintings (1596–1600) for the Colegio de Doña María de Aragon, an Augustinian monastery in Madrid; and the high altar, four lateral altars, and the painting St. Ildefonso for the Hospital de la Caridad at Illescas (1603–05). Extreme distortion of body characterizes El Greco’s last works—for example, the Adoration of the Shepherds , painted in 1612–14 for his own burial chapel.

The brilliant, dissonant colours and the strange shapes and poses create a sense of wonder and ecstasy, as the shepherd and angels celebrate the miracle of the newly born child. In the unfinished Vision of St. John, El Greco’s imagination led him to disregard the laws of nature even more. The gigantic swaying figure of St. John the Evangelist, in abstractly painted icy-blue garments, reveals the souls of the martyrs who cry out for deliverance. In like manner, the figure of the Madonna in the Immaculate Conception (1607–14), originally in the Church of San Vicente , floats heavenward in a paroxysm of ecstasy supported by long, distorted angels. The fantastic view of Toledo below, abstractly rendered, is dazzling in its ghostly moonlit brilliance, and the clusters of roses and lilies, symbols of the Virgin’s purity, are unalloyed in their sheer beauty. In his three surviving landscapes, El Greco demonstrated his characteristic tendency to dramatize rather than to describe. The View of Toledo (c.

1595) renders a city stormy, sinister , and impassioned with the same dark, foreboding clouds that appear in the background of his earlier Crucifixion with Donors. Painting in his studio, he rearranged the buildings depicted in the picture to suit his compositional purpose. View and Plan of Toledo (1610–14) is almost like a vision, all of the buildings painted glistening white. An inscription by the artist on the canvas explains quite fancifully that he had placed the Hospital of San Juan Bautista on a cloud in the foreground so that it could better be seen and that the map in the picture shows the streets of the city. At the left, a river god represents the Tagus, which flows around Toledo, a city built on rocky heights. Although El Greco had lived in Italy and in Rome itself, he rarely used such classical Roman motives. The one picture by El Greco that has a mythological subject, so dear to most Renaissance artists, is the Laocoon (1610–14).

For ancient Troy he substituted a view of Toledo, similar to the one just discussed, and he displayed little regard for classical tradition in painting the highly expressive but great, sprawling body of the priest. Although El Greco was primarily a painter of religious subjects, his portraits, though less numerous, are equally high in quality. Two of his finest late works are the portraits of Fray Felix Hortensio Paravicino (1609) and Cardinal Don Fernando Niño de Guevara (c. 1600). Both are seated, as was customary after the time of Raphael in portraits presenting important ecclesiastics. Paravicino, a Trinitarian monk and a famous orator and poet, is depicted as a sensitive, intelligent man. The pose is essentially frontal, and the white habit and black cloak provide highly effective pictorial contrasts. Cardinal Niño de Guevara, in crimson robes, is almost electrical in his inherent energy, a man accustomed to command. El Greco’s portrait of Jeronimo de Cevallos (1605–10), on the other hand, is most sympathetic. The work is half-length, painted thinly and limited to black and white.

The huge ruff collar, then in fashion, enframes the kindly face. By such simple means, the artist created a memorable characterization that places him in the highest rank as a portraitist, along with Titian and Rembrandt. No followers of any consequence remained in Toledo after El Greco’s death in 1614. Only his son and a few unknown painters produced weak copies of the master’s work. His art was so personally and so highly individual that it could not survive his passing. Moreover, the new Baroque style of Caravaggio and of the Carracci soon supplanted the last surviving traits of 16th-century Mannerism . Share this page: El Greco biography El Greco, born Doménikos Theotokópoulos (1541 – 7 April 1614) Cretan-born painter, sculptor, and architect who settled in Spain and is regarded as the first great genius of the Spanish School. He was known as El Greco (the Greek), but his real name was Domenikos Theotocopoulos; and it was thus that he signed his paintings throughout his life, always in Greek characters, and sometimes followed by Kres (Cretan).

Little is known of his youth, and only a few works survive by him in the Byzantine tradition of icon painting, notably the recently discovered Dormition of the Virgin (Church of the Koimesis tis Theotokou, Syros). In 1566 he is referred to in a Cretan document as a master painter; soon afterwards he went to Venice (Crete was then a Venetian possession), then in 1570 moved to Rome. The miniaturist Giulio Clovio, whom he met there, described him as a pupil of Titian, but of all the Venetian painters Tintoretto influenced him most, and Michelangelo's impact on his development was also important.

Question: Who was Domenikos Theotocopoulos better known as?
Answer: El Greco