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El Greco
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This enormous painting by El Greco (The Greek) was the artist’s first major commission when he arrived in his adopted country of Spain after training in Italy. It was commissioned for the central panel of the high altar of the church of Santo Domingo el Antiguo in Toledo. The story of the Assumption—when the Virgin Mary was taken up to heaven—is based on the apocryphal account by Saint James, who is depicted here holding his book. The subject was represented often by artists, but El Greco’s treatment of the theme is striking. He divided his canvas into two zones, an earthly sphere of apostles and the heavenly sphere of angels. The apostles, arranged in a circle, turn toward each other in amazement and confusion.
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El Greco was born Domenikos Theotokopoulos in Crete, 1541. ‘El Greco’ actually means ‘The Greek’, and is a direct reference to his heritage. There is little known about his early life and training, but it is evident from his later work that he was influenced by the late Byzantine style of the time. Around 1566, he went to Venice and studied under the High Renaissance masters, Titian and Tintoretto. Some of the earliest of his works show their strong influence. El Greco combined Titian’s use of colour and Tintoretto’s compositions of people and use of space, and this is evident in his paintings.
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El Greco was anxious to secure the commission to fresco the walls of the newly built royal monastery-palace of El Escorial near Madrid, completed in 1582. He submitted several paintings to Philip II for approval but was denied the commission. One of these, The Triumph of the Holy League (c. 1578-c. 1579, versions in El Escorial and in the National Gallery, London), proves his ability to combine complex political iconography with medieval motifs. El Greco ... worked for Toledo Cathedral: The Disrobing of Christ (1577-1579) for the sacristy presents a splendid image of Christ in a rich red garment, closely surrounded by his captors.
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El Greco stood apart from his contemporaries in the depiction of his visionary compositions; his pictures are characterised by bright colours, elongated forms and spiritual intensity, painted in a unique personal style, combining aspects of the Byzantine and Western traditions. Born in Crete, then a Venetian colony, El Greco first trained as an icon painter. Artistic ambition led him to Venice in 1568, where his style was transformed through his encounters with the work of Titian and Tintoretto. By 1570 he was in Rome, where he was exposed to Michelangelo's influence, mixing with an elite circle of intellectuals connected with the Farnese Palace. He made his home in Spain, settling in Toledo in 1577. There, working for sophisticated patrons who shared his own intellectual interests, El Greco created the famous series of altarpieces in which his highly individual treatment of religious imagery attained its fullest expression.
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El Greco (born Domenicos Theotocopoulos, 1541-1614) was born on the Greek island of Crete, then a Venetian colony, and went as a youth to Venice, where he began by painting icons in the Byzantine style for the Greek community there. He soon succumbed to the powerful influences of Titian, Tintoretto and, later, Michelangelo. In 1576, El Greco went to Spain, settling in Toledo, where he spent the rest of his life--producing the depictions of the Toledan landscape that are justly among his best-loved works. El Greco's art aimed to arouse religious fervor in its viewers: consequently his brushwork is ecstatically free, color is used expressively and figures are elongated to maximum tension by their emphatic gestures. His work brings a great age of Christian art to its close. With 108 full-color illustrations, including all of his best-known and most characteristic works, this volume offers the reader a wide overview of the work of one of the world's most innovative painters.
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El Greco, whose real name was Domenikos Theotokopoulos, was born in Candia, Crete, in 1541, according to his own statement. The artist must have had some preparation as a painter before he went to the great artistic center of Venice. Since Crete was a Venetian possession during that period, he logically chose to go to Venice rather than to Florence or Rome. The precise date of his arrival in Italy is unknown; it may have been as early as 1560. The fact that he witnessed a document in Candia in 1566 has caused some writers to insist that his first voyage to Venice came later, yet he may have returned to Crete for a visit the year of his father's death (1566). During his stay in Italy he became known as II Greco ("the Greek") because his name was too difficult to pronounce.
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El Greco