Was El Greco a Spanish or Greek painter?
Although many people refer to El Greco as a Spanish painter as it was during his time in Spain that he become popular, El Greco’s real name is actually Doménikos Theotokópoulos, and he was born on the Greek island of Crete.
Where did El Greco paint the assumption of the Virgin?
The Assumption of the Virgin (1577–1579, oil on canvas, 401 × 228 cm, Art Institute of Chicago) was one of the nine paintings El Greco completed for the church of Santo Domingo el Antiguo in Toledo, his first commission in Spain. In 1577, El Greco migrated to Madrid, then to Toledo, where he produced his mature works.
Where did El Greco paint the icon of Candia?
The icon, signed by El Greco ("Χείρ Δομήνιχου", Created by the hand of Doménicos), was painted in Candia on part of an old chest. It was natural for the young El Greco to pursue his career in Venice, Crete having been a possession of the Republic of Venice since 1211.
How does El Greco create a somber atmosphere in this painting?
However in this painting, El Greco dispenses his usual light, colorful and bright representations, and creates an overall dark and somber atmosphere to re-create the painful and dramatic experience of the Saint.
See more
What are El Greco's later works?
El Greco’s later works are marked by exaggerated, and often distorted, figures, stretching beyond the realities of the human body (which is what modern viewers generally have found so appealing). Among them are The Adoration of the Shepherds (1599), Concert of Angels (1610) and The Opening of the Fifth Seal (1614). Fifth Seal, in particular, went on to spark great debate, as it has been suggested that it was an influence on Pablo Picasso ’s Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, often considered the first cubist painting.
What is El Greco's first landscape?
Another notable work from this period is View of Toledo (1597), which is considered the first landscape in Spanish art. It is also is one of the only, if not the only, surviving landscapes done by El Greco, who rarely strayed from religious subjects and portraits.
Who Was El Greco?
El Greco was born around 1541 in Crete, which was then part of the Republic of Venice. In his mid-twenties, he traveled to Venice and studied under Titian, who was the most renowned painter of his day. Around age 35, he moved to Toledo, Spain, where he lived and worked for the rest of his life, producing his best-known paintings. His works from this period are seen as precursors of both Expressionism and Cubism. He is remembered chiefly for his elongated, tortured figures, often religious in nature, the style of which baffled his contemporaries but helped establish his reputation in the years to come.
How did El Greco influence Picasso?
El Greco’s effect on Picasso’s evolution is just one thread of his influence. The twisting figures and brash, unreal colors that form the very foundation of El Greco’s art influenced scores of artists, from the cubists following Picasso to the German expressionists to the abstract impressionists after them.
Where was El Greco born?
El Greco was born Domenikos Theotokopoulos on the island of Crete, which was at the time a Venetian possession. Around age 20, somewhere between 1560 and 1565, El Greco (which means “The Greek”) went to Venice to study and found himself under the tutelage of Titian, the greatest painter of the time. Under Titian, El Greco began mastering the fundamental aspects of Renaissance painting—e.g., perspective, constructing figures and staging detailed narrative scenes (a prime example of his work from this period is The Miracle of Christ Healing the Blind ).
When did El Greco leave Rome?
In 1572, El Greco joined the painters’ academy and established a studio, but success would prove elusive (El Greco had criticized Michelangelo ’s artistic abilities, which likely led to him being ostracized by the Roman art establishment), and he left Rome for Spain in 1576.
Who was the artist who painted the Disrobing of Christ?
Castilla also facilitated the commission of The Disrobing of Christ (1579), and these paintings would become some of El Greco’s most accomplished masterworks. Unfortunately, the price El Greco demanded for The Disrobing of Christ led to a dispute, and he never received another comparable commission from Castilla again.
Where did El Greco first appear?
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.
Where did El Greco live?
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.
What is El Greco's full name?
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.
How long did El Greco stay 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.
What is El Greco's distinction between heaven and earth?
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.
What is El Greco's masterpiece?
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.
Why did El Greco go to Venice?
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.
How big is El Greco's painting?
This large painting, three and half meters wide by almost five meters high, is universally regarded as El Greco's greatest masterpiece and most famous work. It was commissioned by the parish priest of Santo Tomé in Toledo, and is considered to be a prime example of Mannerism.
What is El Greco known for?
Although El Greco was mostly known for his religious themes , he was also a prolific portraitist, known for capturing the character and personality of his subjects in an intuitive way. This painting is considered to be his most famous portrait.
What was El Greco's devotion to God?
El Greco's life and work were marked by a deep underlying devotion to God. Compelled as a young man to become an artist, he mastered a longstanding tradition of Byzantine icon art, yet by the time he eventually settled in Spain his inspiration was largely drawn from the burgeoning Italian and Spanish Renaissances. Although his early ambitions were to become a court painter, his individual style that began to emerge in Spain quickly catapulted him from the confines of any conventional school. He became vastly interested in the new Mannerist movement, a group who disavowed the mere imitation of nature in art, and instead sought to express the underlying psychological aspects of a work beyond its mythological or religious themes. These concepts informed a body of work that is deeply evocative of the Divine and universally noted for manifesting the spirituality that lay beneath all being.
What is the name of the painting that Picasso painted after El Greco?
In this context, it is also of reference to Picasso's painting entitled Portrait of a Painter, after El Greco, from 1950, that can be seen as a tribute to El Greco's way of envisioning and understanding art, which established a great influence on Picasso from the very beginning of his artistic career.
What is El Greco's message?
Art critic Jonathan Jones, states that El Greco was "drawn to complexity, to obscurity, to sophistication," three characteristics that greatly define this work, and that he "spoke a messianic language of religious renewal." This renewal through faith is in fact, one of El Greco's main motivations, and is the prime underlying message of this work that emphasizes the salvation and protection of souls that are good.
What is the name of the church in Toledo that El Greco painted?
The painting is part of El Greco's first major commission for the Church Santo Domingo in Toledo, and, as soon as it was completed it established him within the community as a revered artist. Today it is considered one of his masterpieces, and noted as one of Édouard Manet's favorite paintings.
What was El Greco's philosophy?
The importance of imagination and intuition over subjective characterization was a fundamental principle in El Greco's style, allowing him the freedom to discard such classical criteria as measure and proportion. Instead, he employed techniques such as radical foreshortening to challenge perceptions of the norm.
How does El Greco use color?
By employing broad strokes and bold contrast between light and darkness, El Greco conjures up different atmospheres, while a certain transcendence is evoked through his otherworldly, elongated forms. Similarly, his passionate use of color causes the various features of his paintings to blend together, forcing the audience to contemplate the relationship between the figures and their environment.
What is El Greco's style?
In his own religious paintings, El Greco combines the style of the Cretan School, which was heavily influenced by Eastern Orthodox iconography, and Mannerism, which had developed in Italy earlier in the sixteenth century. In his icon Dormition of the Virgin, for instance, the individual figures and color palette are typical of post-Byzantine icons, ...
What is El Greco's unique approach to devotional art?
El Greco’s unique approach to devotional art is the product of time and place: during the sixteenth century, reformation and tradition were constantly coming into conflict, meaning that artists sought new ways of understanding faith; similarly, his native Crete placed the artist at the convergence of many different cultures, artistic styles and modes of thought.
What did El Greco learn from Titian?
In Italy, El Greco picked up a range of new artistic techniques and methods. From the Venetian school, he adopted Titian’s effective use of color, as well as the slender, lithe figures of Tintoretto; in Rome, he honed his technical skills, learning to compose his scenes around a vanishing point and arrange landscapes to create a sense of depth. Combined with the post-Byzantine style he had learnt in Crete, these new Italian features made El Greco’s style utterly unique.
Why did El Greco have a reputation in Rome?
He is known to have been highly ambitious and stubborn, determined to win a name for himself and his art. This attitude resulted not only in a great appraisal of his own talents, but also outspoken criticism of the work of other artists. For instance, despite being heavily influenced by Michelangelo, El Greco claimed that the Old Master ‘did not know how to paint’ and even suggested to Pope Pius V that he should employ him to paint over the Last Judgement in the Sistine Chapel!
Why did El Greco leave the Guild of Saint Luke?
One prominent architect and writer labeled the painter a ‘foolish foreigner’ and he was eventually forced to leave because of a disagreement with the Cardinal.
Why did El Greco keep his curtains drawn?
Apparently, he chose to rely on his ‘inner light’ and kept his curtains drawn, refusing to have his paintings distorted by light from the outside world. Combined with his famous offer to re-do the work of Michelangelo, these anecdotes form the impression of a self-assured and eccentric character.
Who Was El Greco?
El Greco is widely regarded as a pivotal figure in the Renaissance in Spain during the late 15th and early 16th centuries.
Our List of Important El Greco Paintings
El Greco’s famous paintings were influenced by his imagination and feeling of individual graphic aesthetic. These factors and the composition of the material laid the groundwork for the progression of Cubism, a trend in which painters started to renounce a fixed point of view in order to experiment with geometric forms and interlaced planes.
Frequently Asked Questions
El Greco was an excellent illustrator of religious art, but he was also skilled in portraits and scenery. His painting is regarded as a forerunner of both Cubism and Expressionism. It is so unique that art critics hesitate to classify him in any traditional school.
El Greco began his career painting holy icons
El Greco (“The Greek”), as the Italians dubbed him, was born Domenikos Theotokopoulos on October 1, 1541 in Heraklion, Crete. However, the oil painter spent the largest part of his life in Italy and in Spain, where he created his best-known works.
The artist moves to Spain, follows his own, unique style
So in 1576, El Greco chose to make his fateful move to Spain, where he made a bid to win the patronage of King Phillip II, to no avail. But when he moved to Toledo, he finally found the recognition he deserved and he quickly made the city his home.
The works of El Greco were appreciated after his time
Once fully established in Toledo, El Greco completed many commissions from a range of patrons and lived there for the rest of his life. However, the decade from 1597 to 1607 was the most prolific for the Greek master, and he created the bulk of his known work during that period.
