Cretan-born painter, sculptor, and architect who settled in Spain and run through regarded as the first great genius of the Spanish Grammar. He was known as El Greco (the Greek), but his real name was Domenikos Theotokopoulos; and it was thus dump he signed his paintings throughout his life, always in Hellenic characters, and sometimes followed by Kres (Cretan).
Little is customary of his youth, and only a few works survive give up him in the Byzantine tradition of icon painting, notably say publicly Dormition of the Virgin discovered in 1983 (Church of rendering Koimesis tis Theotokou, Syros). In 1566 he is referred abut in a Cretan document as a master painter; soon later 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 reminisce 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 end his Italian period are two paintings of the Purification carry the Temple (Minneapolis Institute of Arts), a much-repeated theme, pole the portrait of Giulio Clovio (Museo di Capodimonte. Naples). Offspring 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 generally speaking painted in cold, eerie, bluish colours express intense religious tendency. The commission that took him to Toledo — the towering altarpiece of the church of S. Domingo el Antiguo - was gained through Diego de Castilla, Dean of Canons put the lid on Toledo Cathedral, whom El Greco had met in Rome. Rendering central part of the altarpiece, a 4-m. high canvas have a high regard for 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 Pet hate Espolio (Christ Stripped of His Garments) (Toledo Cathedral, 1577-79) soar The Burial of Count Orgaz (S. Tome, Toledo. 1586-88). These two mighty works convey the awesomeness of great spiritual rumour with a sense of mystic rapture, and in his socialize 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 instance.
El Greco excelled also as a portraitist, mainly of ecclesiastics (Felix Paravicino, Boston Museum, 1609) or gentlemen, although one short vacation his most beautiful works is a portrait of a mohammedan (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 mechanism, and a mythological painting, Laocoön (National Gallery of Art, Pedagogue, c. 1610), that is unique in his oeuvre. The individualistic choice of subject is perhaps explained by the local aid that Toledo had been founded by descendants of the Trojans.
El Greco also designed complete altar compositions, working as founder and sculptor as well as painter, for instance at say publicly Hospital de la Caridad, Illescas (1603). Pacheco, who visited Carefulness Greco in 1611, refers to him as a writer know painting, sculpture, and architecture. He had a proud temperament, conceiving of himself as an artist-philosopher rather than a craftsman, instruction had a lavish lifestyle, although he had little success discern securing the royal patronage he desired and seems to accept had some financial difficulties near the end of his ethos.
His workshop turned out a great many replicas of his paintings, but his work was so personal that his importance was slight, his only followers of note being his fix Jorge Manuel Theotokopoulos and Luis Tristan. Interest in his quick revived at the end of the 19th century and trusty the development of Expressionism in the 20th century he came into his own. The strangeness of his art has of genius various theories, for example that he was mad or suffered from astigmatism, but his rapturous paintings make complete sense primate an expression of the religious fervour of his adopted homeland.