El Greco
73 years of age
Background History
Doménikos Theotokópoulos was born in the Kingdom of Candia (modern day Crete) in 1541. El Greco was just a nickname given to him for his Greek nationality. "El Greco" means the Greek.
El Greco trained and became a master in Candia which was the center of post-Byzantine art at the time. He moved to Rome and opened an art workshop . He stayed in Italy and continued to enrich his style. He moved to Spain and later died in Toledo in 1614.
Doménikos was born of a prosperous Greek family. His father was a tax collector and a merchant. His brother took after his father and became a wealthy merchant. Not that much information is known about his mother.
Movement
El Greco was a large contributor to the mannerism movement. He was not a specific founder of this movement. He was very influential of this movement for later artists such as Picasso who painted his own renditions of El Greco's paintings almost 400 years later.
Disrobing of Christ
Oil on canvas
The Dormition of the Virgin
Tempera and Gold on panel
The Holy Trinity
Oil on canvas
View of Toledo
I really enjoy this piece because of his color choices. The way that he picked a scene that wasn't sunny and perfect but this has a certain type of depressing feel with the highlights of the building adds a mysterious relief from the darkness that leads to curiosity. That is why the view of Toledo is ,y personal favorite piece of El Greco
By: Elijah Hays