Greco-Adoration of Shepherds(Madrid)-1612
Greco-Adoration Of The Name Of Jesus-1577
Greco-Adoration Of The Shepherds-1574
Greco-Antonio De Covarrubias(Louvre)
Greco-Baptism Of Christ(Madrid)-1597
Greco-Baptism of Christ(Toredo, Spain)-1608
Greco-Christ Carrying The Cross(Lehman Collection)-1580s
Greco-Christ Cleansing The Temple-Before 1570
Greco-Christ Driving Traders From Temple,
aka Purification of Temple(Flick)-1600
Greco-Christ Healing the Blind(Metropolitan, N.Y.)-1577_8
Greco-Christ On The Cross Adored By Donors(Louvre)-1590
Greco-Christ On The Cross(Cleveland)-1610
Greco-Christ on the Cross(Rijks Museum, Amsterdam)-1585~90
Greco-El Espolio, Spoliation(Toledo, Spain)-1577
Greco-Fray Hortensio Felix Paravicino-1609
Greco-Holy Family with St. Anne-1595
Greco-Holy Trinity(Madrid)-1577
Greco-Knight With Hand On Breast(Madrid)
Greco-Lady with A Fur(private collection)-1577~80
Greco-Laocoon-1610s
Greco-Madonna & Child With St. Martina & Agnes
Greco-Madonna & Child with St.Martina, Agnes(National Gallery, WS)-1597
Greco-Opening of 15th Seal of Apocalypse(Metropolitan Museum, N.Y.)-1608
Greco-Portrait of A Doctor(Plado Museum, Spain)-1577~84
Greco-Portrait of A Man-1590
Greco-Portrait of An Elder Nobleman(Plado Museum)-1594
Greco-Portrait of Cardinal(Metropolitan Museum, N.Y.)-1600
Greco-Portrait of Ecclesiastic(Kimbell)-1610
Greco-Portrait of The Artist's Son(Provincial Museum, Seville)-1603
Greco-Portrait of The Poet Alonso Ercilla y Zuniga(Hermitage Museum)-1576
Greco-Repentant Peter(National Gallery, W.S.)-1600
Greco-Resurrection(Antiguo Church, Toledo, Spain)-1577~9
Greco-Saint Andrew-1610
Greco-Saint Dominic In Prayer(Portland)-1600
Greco-Saint Ildefonso(National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.)-1603~14
Greco-Saint Louis,(Louvre, Paris)
Greco-Saint Peter-1610s
Greco-St. Jerome As Cardinal(Lehman Collection)-1610~4
Greco-St. Jerome-1610
Greco-St. John The Evangelist & Francis(Uffigi Museum)-1600
Greco-St Francis Praying(Joslyn Museum, Omaha)-1580s
Greco-St. Francis Receiving The Stigmata(private collection)
Greco-St Francis Receiving The Stigmata(Waters Gallery, Baltimore)-1579
Greco-St. Veronica With The Sudary(Santa Cruz, Toledo)-1579
Greco-St. Martin & The Beggar(National Gallery, WS)-1599
Greco-Sts. Peter & Paul(Hermitage Museum)-1587
Greco-The Adoration of The Shepherds-1597
Greco-The Adoration of The Shepherds-1610
Greco-The Annunciation(Plado Museum, Madrid)
Greco-The Assumption of The Virgin(Chicago)-1577
Greco-The Ecstasy of St. Francis(Bishop Palace, Siedlce)-1580
Greco-The Holly Family-1580s
Greco-The Holy Family with Mary Magdalen(Cleveland)-1595
Greco-The Holy Trinity(Plado Museum, Madrid)-1577.
Greco-The Magdalene(Budapest Museum)-1576~8
Greco-The Miracle of Christ Healing The Blind(Metropolitan Museum, N.Y.)-1570
Greco-The Penitent Magdalen(private collection)
Greco-The Penitent St. Peter-1595
Greco-The Resurrection-1590s
Greco-The Risen Christ, Wood (Hospital Bautista, Toledo)-1610
Greco-The Spoliation(Metropolitan Museum, NY)-1577~9
Greco-The Virgin Mary(Mater Dolorosa)-1590s
Greco-Venus & Vulcan, Polychrome Wood(Infantas Collection, Granada)
Greco-View of Toledo(Metropolitan Museum. N.Y.)
Greco-Vincenzo Anastagi(Flick)-1571
El Greco
Greece, Mannerism
born 1541 - died 7 April 1614
Also known as: Domenikos Theotokopoulos.
El Greco
Biographical Information
GRECO, EL, the name commonly given to Domenikos Theotokopoulos (d. 1614),
Cretan painter, architect and sculptor. He was born in Crete, between 1545
and 1550, and announces his Cretan origin by his signature in Greek
letters on his most important pictures, especially on the St Maurice in
the Escorial. He appears to have studied art first of all in Venice, and
on arriving in Rome in 1570 is described as having been a pupil of Titian,
in a letter written by the miniaturist, Giulio Clovio, addressed to
Cardinal Alessandro Farnesi, dated the 15th of November 1570.
Although a student under Titian, he was at no time an exponent of his
master's spirit, and his early historical pictures were attributed to many
other artists, but never to Titian. Of his early works, two pictures of
The Healing of the Blind Man at Dresden and Palma, and the four of Christ
driving the money-changers out of the Temple in the Yarborough collection,
the Cork collection, the National Gallery, and the Beruete collection at
Madrid, are the chief. His first authentic portrait is that of his
fellow-countryman, Giulio Clovio. It was painted between 1570 and 5578, is
signed in Greek characters, and preserved at Naples, and the last portrait
he painted under the influence of the Italian school appears to be that of
a cardinal now in the National Gallery, of which four replicas painted in
Spain are known. He appears to have come to Spain in 1577, but, on being
questioned two years later in connection with a judicial suit, as to when
he arrived in the country, and for what purpose he came, declined to give
any information. He was probably attracted by the prospect of
participating in the decoration of the Escorial, and he appears to have
settled down in Toledo, where his first works were the paintings for the
high altar of Santo Domingo, and his famous picture of The Disrobing of
Christ in the sacristy of the cathedral. It was in connection with this
last-named work that he proved refractory, and the records of a law-suit
respecting the price to be paid to him give us the earliest information of
the artist's sojourn in Spain. In 1590, he painted the History of St
Maurice for Philip II, and in 1578, his masterpiece, entitled The Burial
of the Count Orgaz. This magnificent picture, one of the finest in Spain,
is at last being appreciated, and can only be put a, little below the
masterpieces of Vel?quez. It is a strangely individual work, representing
Spanish character even more truthfully than did any Spanish artist, and it
gathers up all the fugitive moods, the grace and charm, the devices and
defects of a single race, and gives them complete stability in their
wavering expressions.
Between 1595 and 1600, El Greco executed two groups of paintings in the
church of San Jos at Toledo, and in the hospital of La Caridad, at
Illescas. Besides these, he is known to have painted thirty-two portraits,
several manuscripts, and many paintings for altar-pieces in Toledo and the
neighborhood. As an architect he was responsible for more than one of the
churches of Toledo, and as a sculptor for carvings both in wood and in
marble, and he can only be properly understood in all his varied
excellences after a visit to the city where most of his work was executed.
He died on the 7th of April 1614, and the date of his death is one of the
very few certain facts which we have respecting him. The record informs us
that he made no will, that he received the sacraments, and was buried in
the church of Santo Domingo. The popular legend of his having gone mad
towards the latter part of his career has no foundation in fact, but his
painting became more and more eccentric as his life went on, and his
natural perversity and love of strange, cold coloring, increased towards
the end of his life. As has been well said, Light with him was only used
for emotional appeal, and as focussed or scattered at will. He was
haughtily certain of the value of his own art, and was determined to paint
in cold, ashen coloring, with livid, startling effect, the gaunt and
extraordinary figures that he beheld with his eccentric genius. His
pictures have wonderful visionary quality, admirable invention, and are
full of passionate fervency. They may be considered extravagant, but are
never commonplace, and are exceedingly attractive in their intense
emotion, marvellous sincerity, and strange, chilly color.
El Greco's work is typically modern, and from it the portrait painter, J.
S. Sargent, claims to have learnt more than from that of any other artist.
It immortalizes the character of the people amongst whom he dwelt, and he
may be considered as the initiator of truth and realism in art, a
precursor and inspirer of Vel?quez.
In his own time he was exceedingly popular, and held in great repute.
Sonnets were written in his honor, and he is himself said to have written
several treatises, but these have not come down to our time. For more than
a generation his work was hardly known, but it is now gaining rapidly in
importance, and its true position is more and more recognized. Some
examples of the artists own handwriting have been discovered in Toledo,
and Se?r Don Manuel Cossia of Madrid has spent many years collecting
information for a work dealing with the artist. - (G. C. W.)
