El Greco
Greek-Spanish·1541–1614
Mannerist master El Greco (1541-1614) fused Byzantine tradition with Venetian color and Spanish mysticism into one of art history's most distinctive styles. Born Doménikos Theotokópoulos in Crete, then a Venetian possession, he trained as an icon painter before traveling to Venice around 1567, where he studied Titian and Tintoretto. After time in Rome, he settled in Toledo, Spain in 1577, finding patrons among the clergy and nobility.
El Greco's mature style features elongated figures, acid colors, and flickering light that express spiritual ecstasy. The Burial of the Count of Orgaz (1586-88) at Santo Tomé in Toledo combines earthly grandeur with heavenly vision in a painting that has never left its original location. View of Toledo is among history's most dramatic landscape paintings. Ignored after his death, El Greco was rediscovered by Romantics and influenced Expressionists and Picasso. The Prado in Madrid holds major works, while The Burial remains at Santo Tomé church in Toledo. The Metropolitan Museum displays significant paintings.
