El Greco
by: Jacob Collins
Biography
- Named "El Greco" because his other names were too hard to pronounce
- Born 1541 in Crete, Greece
- Settled in Spain
- Pupil of Titian
- Titian was a religious painter that was popular at the time
- He was a Renaissance man
- Familiar with Greek and Latin literature as well as Spanish and Italian
- Had a library containing many architectural books of the time period
- Wrote architectural book but has been lost
- Had Italian and Spanish art periods, mostly paintings and murals
- Italian period: Boy Blowing on an Ember
- Spanish period: Assumption of the Virgin
- Later Style: Joseph with the Christ Child
- Diego de Castilla commissioned El Greco to paint three alter pieces for the Santo Domingo church in Toledo
- Many of his patrons were church men
- Focused on idealism
- Many paintings were religious, incorperating ideals and representing real things not quite as they really seem
- Classicism paintings were also an area of expertiece for El Greco
- Classicism because of the classic religious paintings and El Greco's Greek roots
The Espolio
- Started the summer of 1577 and done in 1579
- Can be found in Toledo Cathedral
- First record of El Greco's painting in Spain is what is significant as well as it is a moving christian piece
- Represents that Christ is being tormented before being put on the cross. He does not retaliate, rather he looks up for God's help. It also represents that Christians are stronger morally and that the disbelievers cannot bring them down
- Use of Classicism because it is religious and is influenced by the past
- Use of idealism because this is an unrealistic way of looking at how Jesus was realistically put on the cross
- I find this interesting because it shows how one man is being tortured and is giving no resistance
- You can find this painting @ http://library.artstor.org/library/#3|search|1|the20espolio|Multiple20Collection20Search|||type3D3126kw3Dthe20espolio26id3Dall26name3DAll20Collections26origKW3D
Boy Blowing on an Ember
- Painted in his Italian period
- Early 1570s
Assumption of the Virgin
- Painted in his Spanish period
- 1577
Works Cited
Christiansen, Keith. "El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos) (1541–1614)". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/grec/hd_grec.htm (October 2004)
"El Greco." Encyclopedia of World Biography. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Biography in Context. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.
Greco, El. The Espolio. 1579. Toledo Cathedral, n.p.
Greco, El. Boy Blowing on an Ember. Early 1570s. N.p.
Greco, El. Assumption of the Virgin. 1577. N.p.