El Greco

Painting, Visual Artist

1541 – 1614

105

Who was El Greco?

El Greco, born Doménikos Theotokópoulos, was a painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El Greco" was a nickname, a reference to his national Greek origin, and the artist normally signed his paintings with his full birth name in Greek letters, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος, often adding the word Κρής.

El Greco was born in Crete, which was at that time part of the Republic of Venice, and the center of Post-Byzantine art. He trained and became a master within that tradition before travelling at age 26 to Venice, as other Greek artists had done. In 1570 he moved to Rome, where he opened a workshop and executed a series of works. During his stay in Italy, El Greco enriched his style with elements of Mannerism and of the Venetian Renaissance. In 1577, he moved to Toledo, Spain, where he lived and worked until his death. In Toledo, El Greco received several major commissions and produced his best-known paintings.

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.

We need you!

Help us build the largest biographies collection on the web!

Born
1541
Kingdom of Candia
Also known as
  • Greco
  • Doménikos Theotokópoulos
  • Domenikos Theotocopoulos
  • Krēs
  • Domenico Greco
Parents
Siblings
Spouses
Children
Religion
  • Catholicism
Ethnicity
  • Greeks
Nationality
  • Spain
  • Greece
Profession
Lived in
  • Crete
  • Venice
    (1567 - 1570)
  • Rome
    (1570 - )
  • Toledo
    (1577 - )
Died
Apr 7, 1614
Toledo
Resting place
Monastery of Saint Dominic of Silos

Submitted
on July 23, 2013

Citation

Use the citation below to add to a bibliography:

Style:MLAChicagoAPA

"El Greco." Biographies.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 18 Mar. 2024. <https://www.biographies.net/people/en/el_greco>.

Discuss this El Greco biography with the community:

0 Comments

    Browse Biographies.net