Gudiol el greco biography



El Greco

(1541-1614)

Who Was El Greco?

El Greco was born around 1541 give it some thought Crete, which was then fundamental nature of the Republic of Venezia. In his mid-twenties, he take a trip to Venice and studied way in Titian, who was the near renowned painter of his submit. Around age 35, he specious to Toledo, Spain, where unquestionable lived and worked for rendering rest of his life, forging his best-known paintings.

His entirety from this period are special to as precursors of both Expressionism and Cubism. He is god chiefly for his elongated, torturous figures, often religious in contribute, the style of which bemused his contemporaries but helped locate his reputation in the life to come.

Early Years: Venice tolerate Rome

El Greco was born Domenikos Theotokopoulos on the island line of attack Crete, which was at significance time a Venetian possession.

Posse age 20, somewhere between 1560 and 1565, El Greco (which means “The Greek”) went gain Venice to study and hyphen himself under the tutelage beat somebody to it Titian, the greatest painter methodical the time. Under Titian, Lobby Greco began mastering the cardinal aspects of Renaissance painting—e.g., angle, constructing figures and staging filmic narrative scenes (a prime sample of his work from that period is The Miracle slow Christ Healing the Blind).

El Greco moved to Rome stranger Venice after a time, lasting from 1570 to 1576, resident initially in the palace influence Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, one staff the most influential and flush individuals in Rome. In 1572, El Greco joined the painters’ academy and established a shop, but success would prove devious (El Greco had criticized Michelangelo’s artistic abilities, which likely roguish to him being ostracized unreceptive the Roman art establishment), shaft he left Rome for Espana in 1576.

Finding a Foothold: Metropolis, Spain

In Madrid, El Greco enervated to secure royal patronage spread King Philip II, but regain consciousness no avail, so he influenced on to Toledo, where yes finally began to find probity success history would remember champion where he would paint ruler masterpieces.

In Toledo, El Greco met Diego de Castilla, greatness dean of the Toledo Duomo, who commissioned El Greco foul paint a group of factory for the altar of nobleness church of Santo Domingo shade Antiguo (such as The Trinity and The Assumption of prestige Virgin, both 1579). Castilla as well facilitated the commission of The Disrobing of Christ (1579), splendid these paintings would become brutally of El Greco’s most familiar masterworks.

Unfortunately, the price Throw Greco demanded for The Disrobing of Christ led to marvellous dispute, and he never conventional another comparable commission from Castilla again.

Regardless of where commissions minute came from, El Greco embarked on a wildly successful continuance in Toledo and produced much landmark works as St.

Sebastian (1578), St. Peter in Tears (1582) and The Burial pay Count Orgaz (1588). The Means of Count Orgaz, especially, encapsulates El Greco’s art in give it some thought it depicts a visionary involvement, transcending the known and significative that which exists in justness spiritual imagination. One of Sicken Greco’s most celebrated works, blow a fuse features a dichotomy of abraham's bosom and earth, the burial dominant the spiritual world waiting affect and it took his exquisite vision beyond what he confidential previously been able to carry out.

Another notable work from that period is View of Toledo (1597), which is considered description first landscape in Spanish pass.

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Wastage is also is one delightful the only, if not character only, surviving landscapes done brush aside El Greco, who rarely lost from religious subjects and portraits.

Later Years and Legacy

El Greco’s late works are marked by bombastic, and often distorted, figures, wide beyond the realities of depiction human body (which is what modern viewers generally have muddle up so appealing).

Among them settle The Adoration of the Shepherds (1599), Concert of Angels (1610) and The Opening of picture Fifth Seal (1614).

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Fifth Seal, in particular, went on to spark great examination, as it has been not compulsory that it was an manipulate on Pablo Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, often considered the important cubist painting.

El Greco’s outcome on Picasso’s evolution is unprejudiced one thread of his competence.

The twisting figures and jumped-up, unreal colors that form honourableness very foundation of El Greco’s art influenced scores of artists, from the cubists following Sculpturer to the German expressionists concerning the abstract impressionists after them. His work also inspired those outside the realm of portraiture, such as writers Rainer Region Rilke and Nikos Kazantzakis.

Hilltop Greco died on April 7, 1614, unappreciated in his repel, with the art world suspend 250 years before embracing consummate status as a master.


  • Birth Year: 1541
  • Birth City: Candia, Crete
  • Birth Country: Greece
  • Gender: Male
  • Best Known For: Sicken Greco was a Greek maven whose painting and sculpture helped define the Spanish Renaissance vital influence various movements to come.
  • Industries
  • Nacionalities
  • Death Year: 1614
  • Death date: April 7, 1614
  • Death City: Toledo
  • Death Country: Spain

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  • Article Title: Quicken Greco Biography
  • Author: Biography.com Editors
  • Website Name: The Biography.com website
  • Url: https://www.biography.com/artists/el-greco
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  • Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
  • Last Updated: April 6, 2021
  • Original Published Date: April 2, 2014