Biography
Doménikos Theotokópoulos, known as El Greco, lived from 1541-1614. He was one of the last members of the Italian Renaissance. He was born in Crete, where he was known for painting religious icons. Then, he lived for a period in Rome, where he developed a distaste for Michelangelo and didn’t make many friends. Eventually, he relocated to Spain, where he received commissions in the creation of El Escorial before settling in Toledo. El Greco did his best work in Toledo, a city of Christians, Jews, and Muslims. His work influenced the coming Expressionists and Cubists.
Mannerism included a lot of drama. This strange aesthetic included both mystical and hallucinatory elements. Mannerism comes from the Italian word maniera, which means style. It was simply the “stylish style” of its day, emphasizing self-conscious artifice over realistic depiction. Bodies were portrayed as slender, elongated figures that were frequently twisting or turning, contradicting the traditional laws of proportion.
The Art
Internet Resources
Websites:
- https://www.theartstory.org/artist/el-greco/life-and-legacy/
- https://www.el-greco-foundation.org/biography.html
- Living Biographies of the Great Painters by Henry Thomas (source text for biography) Read online here: https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.124855/
Video:
Print Resources*
- El Greco (Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists) by Mike Venezia
- El Greco (Meet the Artist) by Melody S. Mis
- A Sea of Stories: El Greco by Begoña García Carteron and translated by Sarah Marshall
- El Greco (Library of Great Painters) by Leo Bronstein
Photo of Artist:
Self-Portrait 1604 By El Greco – This file was donated to Wikimedia Commons as part of a project by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. See the Image and Data Resources Open Access Policy, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15394500
