El Greco
El Greco (1541-1614). Cretan-born oil painting artist,
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 oil painting artist; 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.
Among the surviving works of his Italian period are two paintings
of the Purification of the Temple (Minneapolis Institute of Arts,
and NG, Washington), a much-repeated theme, and the portrait of
Giulio Clovio (Museo di Capodimonte, Naples). By 1577 he was at
Toledo, where he remained until his death, and it was there that he
matured his characteristic style in which figures elongated into
flame-like forms and usually painted in cold, eerie, bluish colors
express intense religious feeling. The commission that took him to
Toledo -- the high altarpiece of the church of S. Domingo el
Antiguo -- was gained through Diego de Castilla, Dean of Canons at
Toledo Cathedral, whom El Greco had met in Rome. The central part
of the altarpiece, a 4-m. high canvas of The Assumption of the
Virgin (Art Institute of Chicago, 1577), was easily his biggest
work to date, but he carried off the dynamic composition
triumphantly. A succession of great altarpieces followed throughout
his career, the two most famous being El Espolio (Christ Stripped
of His Garments) (Toledo Cathedral, 1577-79) and The Burial of
Count Orgaz (S. Tomé, Toledo, 1586-88). These two mighty works
convey the awesomeness of great spiritual events with a sense of
mystic rapture, and in his late work El Greco went even further in
freeing his figures from earth-bound restrictions; The Adoration of
the Shepherds (Prado, Madrid, 1612-1614), painted for his own tomb,
is a prime example.
El Greco excelled also as a portraitist, mainly of ecclesiastics
(Felix Paravicino, Boston Museum, 1609) or gentlemen, although one
of his most beautiful works is a portrait of a lady (Pollock House,
Glasgow, c. 1577-80), traditionally identified as a likeness of
Jeronima de las Cuevas, his common-law wife. He also painted two
views of Toledo (Met. Museum, New York, and Museo del Greco,
Toledo), both late works, and a mythological painting, Laocoön
(National Gallery, Washington, c. 1610), that is unique in his
oeuvre. The unusual choice of subjects is perhaps explained by the
local tradition that Toledo had been founded by descendants of the
Trojans. El Greco also designed complete altar compositions,
working as architect and sculptor as well as painter, for instance
at the Hospital de la Caridad, Illescas (1603). Pacheco, who
visited El Greco in 1611, refers to him as a writer on painting,
sculpture, and architecture. He had a proud temperament, conceiving
of himself as an artist-philosopher rather that a craftsman, and
had a lavish life-style, although he had little success in securing
the royal patronage he desired and seems to have had some financial
difficulties near the end of his life. His workshop turned out a
great many replicas of his paintings, but his work was so personal
that his influence was slight, his only followers of note being his
son Jorge Manuel Theotocopouli and Luis Tristán. Interest in his
art revived at the end of the 19th century, and with the
development of Expressionism in the 20th century he came into his
own. The strangeness of his art has inspired various theories, for
example that he was mad or suffered from astigmatism, but his
rapturous paintings make complete sense as an expression of the
religious fervour of his adopted country.
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