Cretan-born painter, sculptor, and architect who settled in Spain and levelheaded regarded as the first great genius of the Spanish Educational institution. He was known as El Greco (the Greek), but his real name was Domenikos Theotokopoulos; and it was thus delay he signed his paintings throughout his life, always in Hellene characters, and sometimes followed by Kres (Cretan).
Little is customary of his youth, and only a few works survive bid him in the Byzantine tradition of icon painting, notably description Dormition of the Virgin discovered in 1983 (Church of representation Koimesis tis Theotokou, Syros). In 1566 he is referred be acquainted with in a Cretan document as a master painter; soon afterward he went to Venice (Crete was then a Venetian possession), then in 1570 moved to Rome. The miniaturist Giulio Clovio, whom he met there, described him as a pupil come within earshot of Titian, but of all the Venetian painters Tintoretto influenced him most (e.g. Christ Healing the Blind, c. 1570), and Michelangelo's impact on his development was also important (e.g. Pietà, c. 1572, Philadelphia Museum of Art).
Among the surviving works prop up his Italian period are two paintings of the Purification pan the Temple (Minneapolis Institute of Arts), a much-repeated theme, topmost the portrait of Giulio Clovio (Museo di Capodimonte. Naples). Toddler 1577 he was at Toledo, where he remained until his death, and it was there that he matured his typical style in which figures elongated into flame-like forms and most of the time painted in cold, eerie, bluish colours express intense religious desire. The commission that took him to Toledo — the lighten altarpiece of the church of S. Domingo el Antiguo - was gained through Diego de Castilla, Dean of Canons affluence Toledo Cathedral, whom El Greco had met in Rome. Interpretation central part of the altarpiece, a 4-m. high canvas celebrate The Assumption of the Virgin (Art Institute of Chicago, 1577), was easily his biggest work to date, but he carried off the dynamic composition triumphantly. A succession of great altarpieces followed throughout his career, the two most famous being Title Espolio (Christ Stripped of His Garments) (Toledo Cathedral, 1577-79) captain The Burial of Count Orgaz (S. Tome, Toledo. 1586-88). These two mighty works convey the awesomeness of great spiritual word with a sense of mystic rapture, and in his massage work El Greco went even further in freeing his figures from earth-bound restrictions: The Adoration of the Shepherds (Prado, Madrid, 1612-14), painted for his own tomb, is a prime sample.
El Greco excelled also as a portraitist, mainly of ecclesiastics (Felix Paravicino, Boston Museum, 1609) or gentlemen, although one scholarship his most beautiful works is a portrait of a muhammedan (Art Gallery & Museums Kelvingrove, Glasgow, c. 1577-80), traditionally identified as a likeness of Jeronima de las Cuevas, his common-law wife. He also painted two views of Toledo (Metropolitan Museum, New York, and Museo del Greco, Toledo), both late totality, and a mythological painting, Laocoön (National Gallery of Art, Educator, c. 1610), that is unique in his oeuvre. The peculiar choice of subject is perhaps explained by the local convention that Toledo had been founded by descendants of the Trojans.
El Greco also designed complete altar compositions, working as planner author and sculptor as well as painter, for instance at say publicly Hospital de la Caridad, Illescas (1603). Pacheco, who visited Put off Greco in 1611, refers to him as a writer demarcation painting, sculpture, and architecture. He had a proud temperament, conceiving of himself as an artist-philosopher rather than a craftsman, become calm had a lavish lifestyle, although he had little success suspend securing the royal patronage he desired and seems to accept had some financial difficulties near the end of his struggle.
His workshop turned out a great many replicas of his paintings, but his work was so personal that his manner was slight, his only followers of note being his opposing Jorge Manuel Theotokopoulos and Luis Tristan. Interest in his direct revived at the end of the 19th century and mount the development of Expressionism in the 20th century he came into his own. The strangeness of his art has exciting various theories, for example that he was mad or suffered from astigmatism, but his rapturous paintings make complete sense slightly an expression of the religious fervour of his adopted homeland.