El Greco

El Greco was a Greek artist who worked in Spain during the Renaissance. He was born in Crete around 1541 and studied under Titian in Venice. He moved to Toledo, Spain, around 1577 and developed his distinctive style of dramatic and expressionistic art. He was not well understood by his contemporaries, but his influence and reputation grew in the 20th century. El Greco's father was a merchant and tax collector. He received his initial training as an icon painter of the Cretan school, a leading center of post-Byzantine art. He also studied the classics of ancient Greece and perhaps Latin as well. He left a working library of 130 volumes at his death, including the Bible in Greek and an annotated Vasari book. El Greco went to Italy to master the modern Western Renaissance style. He stayed in Venice from 1568 to 1570, where he learned from Tintoretto, Veronese, and Titian. He then moved to Rome, where he opened a workshop and executed a series of works. He was influenced by Michelangelo and Raphael, but also developed his own mannerist style that contrasted with the naturalism of his Italian peers. El Greco left Rome in 1576, after a dispute with Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, who rejected his painting of The Martyrdom of Saint Maurice. He settled in Toledo, Spain, where he lived and worked until his death. He received several major commissions from the church and the nobility, and produced his best-known paintings, such as The Burial of the Count of Orgaz, View of Toledo, The Opening of the Fifth Seal, and The Disrobing of Christ. El Greco's style was characterized by elongated figures, distorted proportions, vivid colors, and dynamic compositions. He often used religious themes and combined Byzantine and Western elements. He also worked as a sculptor and an architect, designing complete altar compositions. He was highly esteemed as an artist in his lifetime, but his works were mostly confined to Toledo and were forgotten after his death. El Greco's art was rediscovered in the 19th century by Romantic critics and painters who admired his originality and expressiveness. He was regarded as a precursor of both Expressionism and Cubism, while his personality and works were a source of inspiration for poets and writers such as Rainer Maria Rilke and Nikos Kazantzakis. El Greco is now considered one of the greatest artists of all time and a master of Spanish painting.