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Born in 1541 possibly on 01 October:
Doménikos Theotokópoulos “El Greco”, Greek Spanish Mannerist painter who died on 07 April 1614. He studied under Titian. El Greco's students included Juan Bautista Mayno [1569 – 01 Apr 1649] and Pedro Orrente [1580-1645].
He was a master of Spanish painting, whose highly individual dramatic and expressionistic style and elongated figures [self-portrait at age 62 >] 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.
— Today considered one of the greatest artists of the Spanish school. El Greco “the Greek” was actually born in Candia (now Iraklion), the capital of Crete, a Greek island then under Venetian control. The artist always acknowledged this origin, signing his works with his given name, Domenikos Theotokopoulus, in Greek characters. The Kres appearing in some signatures means "Cretan." El Greco's early works demonstrate that he worked within the conservative tradition of Byzantine icon painting before exposure to Venetian High Renaissance art broadened his stylistic approach. In Venice by 1568, El Greco is documented in Rome in 1570, where he remained until 1577. There he gained entree into the influential circle of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese and in 1572 was accepted as a miniaturist into the Academy of Saint Luke. Most likely seeking royal patronage, in 1577 El Greco moved permanently to Spain and by 1579 had completed the Disrobing of Christ (El Espolio) for the sacristy of the cathedral of Toledo. One of El Greco's masterpieces, this painting exhibits the full brilliance of his perfect wedding of a highly idiosyncratic style with the emotional intensity of the Counter-Reformation. Although religious works predominate in his oeuvre, El Greco was also a masterful portraitist. Failing to secure a permanent appointment at the court of Philip 11 in Madrid, El Greco worked the rest of his long career in Toledo, where he died.
— The most unusual painter in 16th-century Europe, El Greco combined the strict Byzantine style of his homeland, Greece, with influences received during his studies in Venice and the medieval tradition of the country, where he worked, Spain.
Domenicos Theotokopoulos, later called El Greco by the Spaniards, was born in 1541 (possibly on 02 September) in Candia, on the island of Crete, which was then a Venetian possession. [Being born in Crete does not make him a Cretin, but a Cretan, though it may make him a liar, if Cretan poet Epimenides, quoted by Saint Paul (Titus 1:12), said the truth when stating in the 6th century BC that “All Cretans are liars.” Logicians have made a big deal of this, calling it a paradox, which it isn't, for: (1) even the worst liar does sometimes tell the truth. (2) If it is false that “All Cretans are liars”, it does not follow that “No Cretans are liars” but that “At least one Cretan is not a liar” and that one would not be Epimenides.].
Theotokopoulos was trained as icon-maker in a monastery; he then went to Venice (soon after 1560), where Titian became his greatest mentor. El Greco, however, obtained very little influence from his master; a certain influence of Bassano, Baroccio, Veronese, or Tintoretto, could be felt but on the whole his works are very individual and distinct. In 1570 El Greco went by way of Parma (where he appreciated Correggio) to Rome, where he met Michelangelo. He criticized his Last Judgment severely, and offered to produce a better composition. But on the whole Michelangelo and the Central Italian Mannerists stimulated him. The works of his Italian period are very different in style: Christ Healing the Blind Man (1566), The Annunciation (1575), Christ Driving the Traders from the Temple (1570).
About 1576 the painter went to Spain. At first he was in the service of Philip II: The Dream of Philip II (1579). His Martyrdom of St. Maurice (1580) did not appeal to Philip, and the painter moved (in 1580) to Toledo, the old capital and then a major center of artistic, intellectual, and religious life in 16th-century Spain. He stayed in Toledo until his death. In 1586 he painted for the church of St. Thomé his famous The Burial of Count Orgaz (1586), the success of which brought him a great number of commissions from the Church, the decorations for the new church of St. Domingo el Antiguo among them. He also became a popular portraitist: Portrait of a Nobleman with His Hand on His Chest (1580, probably Major Juan da Silva, Marquise de Monte, head notary of Toledo). His painting style always stimulated much discussion.
The life of proud and independent El Greco in Spain, who always signed his pictures by his Greek name, demanded of him constant self-assertion. He rented the palace of Marquis Viliena (present Museo El Greco in Toledo), collected valuable library, was very successive in law suites against church administrations. Very brave in Catholic Spain was his union with a young aristocrat Jeronima de las Cuevas, mother of his bastard son Jorjé Manuel, the future Spanish architect. ‘Man of eccentric habits and ideas, of tremendous determination, extraordinary reticence, and extreme devoutness’ he was valued and respected by the intellectuals of Toledo.
El Greco did not have followers, and his art was forgotten for 300 years. The re-discovery of his painting was a sensation; he became one of the most popular masters of the past, his painting arose interest of collectors, artists, lovers of art and art historians. El Greco is now regarded as one of the most important representatives of European Mannerism. El Greco died in Toledo, Spain.
— LINKS
— Saint Francis receiving the Stigmata (105x80cm)
— St. Francis Venerating the Crucifix (1595, 147x105cm; 4/5 size; or see it 2/5 size; or recommended 2/10 size)
— The Penitent Magdalene (86x67cm) _ [detail]
— a different The Penitent Magdalene (1578, 157x121cm) _ After a short period of study in Greece, El Greco, one of the most renowned figure in Spanish art, went to Venice in the middle of the sixteenth century, where he worked in Titian's workshop, and where he became familiar with the art of Paolo Veronese, Jacopo Bassano and Tintoretto, as well as works by representatives of the North Italian Mannerist school. Later, in Rome, he was strongly influenced by the work of Michelangelo. By the time he had settled in Toledo around 1576, his art was fully developed. Like most of the painters coming from Italy, he was anxious to enter the service of King Philip II, but the Greek painter's immediacy of passion, ecstatic style, disturbing colours and visionary conceptions did not please the king's academic Italian taste. He was, however, appreciated by the religious orders and the aristocratic patrons of Toledo. The penitent Magdalene must have been painted at the beginning of his years in Toledo because the strong influence of paintings on the same theme by Titian can be observed. The ideal of beauty is still Titian's half-figure pictures of women, but the inner tension of the whole composition and the relation between man and nature already indicate the beginning of Mannerism. The arrangement of the fingers of the right hand is a characteristic feature of El Greco's painting. The sitter for the painting may have been Jerónima de las Cuevas, the mistress of the artist.
— St. John the Baptist (1600, 111x66cm; full size; or see it half-size; or recommended quarter-size)
— Saint Peter (1610, 71x55cm; full size; or see it half-size; or recommended quarter-size)
— Saint Paul (1614) — Saint John the Evangelist and Saint Francis (1608)
— Christ Driving the Traders from the Temple (1571, 117x150cm) _ (Matthew, XXI, 12; the sequel is possibly the Christ healing the Blind.) The four portraits at the bottom right represent, from left to right, Titian, Michelangelo, Giulio Clovio and possibly El Greco himself. The introduction of Titian and Michelangelo is clearly an acknowledgment of his debt to these two artists. To his friend, Giulio Clovio, he owed his introduction to the Farnese household. The young man looking out, pointing to himself, has similar features to the self-portrait in the Christ healing the Blind at Parma, but the long hair is strange. It has also been suggested that he could represent the young Raphael. The portraits of Titian and Michelangelo (died 1564) were taken from existing portraits, and that of Giulio Clovio follows closely El Greco's portrait of his friend in the Naples Museum, painted c. 1571. El Greco does continue to include portraits in his paintings of religious subjects, but here there is no proper connection with the subject matter.
El Greco first painted the subject in Venice, some years earlier, in the small signed panel in Washington, and he was to take it up again, much later, in Spain, and adhere closely to his original design. As with the Christ Healing the Blind, inspiration for the composition as a whole is from Tintoretto. The main central group, however, is very close to a Michelangelo design, known in drawings, and also in Venusti's painting after Michelangelo's design (National Gallery, London). The figure of the woman walking with a child could be a reminiscence of a similar motif in Raphael's tapestry cartoon, the Distributing of Alms at the Golden Gate. The two men in conversation, who also appear in the middle distance of Christ healing the Blind, have become a grand subsidiary motif, and again hint at acquaintance with Raphael. The larger forms of the architecture also derive from Raphael and Rome, and are consonant with the grander conception of the one integrated action of the main group of figures. This is the most splendid painting El Greco produced before moving to Italy.
— Christ Healing the Blind Man (1566, 66x84cm) _ Christ Healing the Blind Man (1570, 50x61cm) _ Christ Healing the Blind Man (1578, 120x146cm) _ Possibly the sequel to the Christ driving the Traders from the Temple (Matthew, XXI, 14: 'And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them'). Both subjects were treated by El Greco more than once in Italy. This is the smallest known painting on canvas by El Greco. The painting has been cut and the group on the right is incomplete. No large-scale works are known from his Italian period, and most are quite small. He does not appear to have received any important commissions before he moved to Spain.
Three versions of this subject are known, all basically the same in composition, but differing in treatment. The earliest (1566, 66 x 84 cm) is looser in composition, smaller in conception, and introduces genre motifs of a dog, sack and pitcher in the foreground, eliminated in subsequent versions. This painting was influenced by Venetian painting; in the 17th century it was attributed to Paolo Veronese, later to Jacopo Bassano.
The second painting (1570, 50 x 61 cm), probably also painted in Venice, is more easily composed. The third and largest painting, now in the Metropolitan Museum in New York (possibly identical with the one in a Madrid collection at the time of Cossio's pioneer work on El Greco), with its comparative largeness of conception, belongs to his Roman period, after 1570. El Greco did not again take up the subject in Spain.
The inspiration is from Venice. The dramatic use of recession behind the figures in the foreground is Tintoretto's invention. El Greco is still borrowing certain motifs, but the composition would seem to be original. The painting was probably brought to Rome by the artist, unless it was painted soon after his arrival in 1570. The figure on the extreme left, looking out towards the spectator, is certainly the young El Greco. He appears, however, nearer twenty than thirty years old.
The third painting (1578, 120x146 cm), with its comparative largeness of conception, belongs to El Greco's Roman period, after 1570. This version was earlier attributed to Tintoretto, then Veronese. There is also a 17th century copy of this painting.
— El Espolio (1579, 285x173cm) _ Begun in the summer of 1577, and completed in the spring of 1579, for the High Altar of the Sacristy of the Cathedral of Toledo. A document of 02 July 1577 referring to this painting is the earliest record of El Greco in Spain. It is one of the most dignified and moving portrayals of Christ in art. The powerful effect of the painting especially depends upon his original and forceful use of color. Something of the effect of the grand images of the Savior in Byzantine art is recalled. The motif of the crowding round Christ suggests an acquaintance with the works of the Northern artist, Bosch; the figure preparing the Cross could be derived from the similar figure bending forward in Raphael's tapestry cartoon of the Miraculous Draught of Fishes. This is, however, the last time that there are any hints of specific borrowings.
There is a small, signed version of El Espolio, which is probably the original preliminary model for the large painting. Many other versions exist, but few can be by El Greco. The only occasion that he treated the subject was for the Cathedral, but the type of Christ created in El Espolio is taken up in the related subject of Christ carrying the Cross, and in other representations of Christ.
The initial reception of the painting, when seen by the artists brought to value it, was that it was beyond appraisal. After the artist's death, the first real recognition of the painting was some two centuries later when Goya painted his Taking of Christ for the same sacristy. — El Espolio (1600) _ an inferior copy of the top half, minus all but seven of the crowd.
— Holy Family (1592) — Holy Family (1593) — Holy Family (1595) — Holy Family (1604)
— Adoration by the Shepherds (1610) — Adoration by the Shepherds (1614)
— Christ Carrying the Cross (1605) — Christ (1595)
— 86 images at Webshots