Greek-born painter, sculptor, and architect active in Spain
1541 CE
to 1614 CE
El Greco (1541 – April 7, 1614) is a painter, sculptor, and architect of the Spanish Renaissance.
"El Greco" (The Greek) is a nickname, a reference to his Greek origin, and the artist normally signs his paintings with his full birth name in Greek letters, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος (Doménikos Theotokópoulos).
El Greco is born in Crete, which was at this time part of the Republic of Venice, and the center of Post-Byzantine art.
He trains and becomes a master within that tradition before traveling at age 26 to Venice, as other Greek artists had done.
In 1570 he moves to Rome, where he opens a workshop and executes a series of works.
During his stay in Italy, El Greco enriches his style with elements of Mannerism and of the Venetian Renaissance.
In 1577, he moves to Toledo, Spain, where he lives and works until his death.
In Toledo, El Greco receives several major commissions and produces his best known paintings.
El Greco's dramatic and expressionistic style was met with puzzlement by his contemporaries but will find appreciation in the 20th century.
El Greco is regarded as a precursor of both Expressionism and Cubism, while his personality and works are 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.
