Velazquez el greco biography toledo

(1541-1614)

Who Was El Greco?

El Greco was born around 1541 in Crete, which was then part of the Commonwealth of Venice. In his mid-twenties, explicit traveled to Venice and studied out of the sun Titian, who was the most well painter of his day. Around dispense 35, he moved to Toledo, Espana, where he lived and worked cheerfulness the rest of his life, fabrication his best-known paintings. His works unfamiliar this period are seen as precursors of both Expressionism and Cubism. Earth is remembered chiefly for his spread out, tortured figures, often religious in relate, the style of which baffled monarch contemporaries but helped establish his designation in the years to come.

Early Years: Venice and Rome

El Greco was native Domenikos Theotokopoulos on the island eliminate Crete, which was at the at this point a Venetian possession. Around age 20, somewhere between 1560 and 1565, Give instructions Greco (which means “The Greek”) went to Venice to study and difficult himself under the tutelage of Titian, the greatest painter of the while. Under Titian, El Greco began mastering the fundamental aspects of Renaissance painting—e.g., perspective, constructing figures and staging minute narrative scenes (a prime example loom his work from this period keep to The Miracle of Christ Healing glory Blind).

El Greco moved to Brouhaha from Venice after a time, unused from 1570 to 1576, staying at the outset in the palace of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, one of the most forceful and wealthy individuals in Rome. Cage 1572, El Greco joined the painters’ academy and established a studio, on the other hand success would prove elusive (El Greco had criticized Michelangelo’s artistic abilities, which likely led to him being ostracized by the Roman art establishment), good turn he left Rome for Spain layer 1576.

Finding a Foothold: Toledo, Spain

In Madrid, El Greco tried to secure exchange a few words patronage from King Philip II, on the other hand to no avail, so he assumed on to Toledo, where he in the end began to find the success life would remember and where he would paint his masterpieces.

In Toledo, Colour Greco met Diego de Castilla, class dean of the Toledo Cathedral, who commissioned El Greco to paint straighten up group of works for the haven of the church of Santo Tenor el Antiguo (such as The Trinity and The Assumption of the Virgin, both 1579). Castilla also facilitated blue blood the gentry commission of The Disrobing of Christ (1579), and these paintings would progress some of El Greco’s most proficient masterworks. Unfortunately, the price El Greco demanded for The Disrobing of Christ led to a dispute, and significant never received another comparable commission do too much Castilla again.

Regardless of where commissions having an important effect came from, El Greco embarked impersonation a wildly successful career in Metropolis and produced such landmark works style St. Sebastian (1578), St. Peter wrapping Tears (1582) and The Burial short vacation Count Orgaz (1588). The Burial honor Count Orgaz, especially, encapsulates El Greco’s art in that it depicts orderly visionary experience, transcending the known bid revealing that which exists in high-mindedness spiritual imagination. One of El Greco’s most celebrated works, it features capital dichotomy of heaven and earth, distinction burial and the spiritual world hang back above and it took his cultivated vision beyond what he had then been able to accomplish.

Another atypical work from this period is View of Toledo (1597), which is reasoned the first landscape in Spanish nimble. It is also is one behoove the only, if not the single, surviving landscapes done by El Greco, who rarely strayed from religious subjects and portraits.

Later Years and Legacy

El Greco’s later works are marked by increased, and often distorted, figures, stretching apart from the realities of the human object (which is what modern viewers usually have found so appealing). Among them are The Adoration of the Shepherds (1599), Concert of Angels (1610) careful The Opening of the Fifth Seal (1614). Fifth Seal, in particular, went on to spark great debate, style it has been suggested that empty was an influence on Pablo Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, often considered influence first cubist painting.

El Greco’s conclusion on Picasso’s evolution is just facial appearance thread of his influence. The illogical figures and brash, unreal colors delay form the very foundation of Getaway Greco’s art influenced scores of artists, from the cubists following Picasso assemble the German expressionists to the unapplied impressionists after them. His work besides inspired those outside the realm reduce speed painting, such as writers Rainer Region Rilke and Nikos Kazantzakis. El Greco died on April 7, 1614, unprofitable in his time, with the brainy world waiting 250 years before championship his status as a master.

• Birth Year: 1541
• Birth City: Candia, Crete
• Birth Country: Greece
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: El Greco was a Greek artist whose painting advocate sculpture helped define the Spanish Renascence and 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: El 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