Art

El Greco

1541–1614 · Greek (Cretan), active in Spain

Mannerism / Spanish Renaissance

El Greco ("The Greek"), born Doménikos Theotokópoulos in Crete, trained as an icon painter before working in Venice and Rome and settling in Toledo, Spain, in 1577. His ecstatic religious paintings, with elongated figures and flickering, unnatural colour, were long thought eccentric but were rediscovered as a forerunner of Expressionism and Cubism.

How to spot them

▸Elongated, flame-like figures with small heads and long fingers, often gazing heavenwards
▸Acid, shimmering colours (sharp greens, yellows, carmines) and stormy, silvery skies
▸Split compositions joining an earthly scene below with a swirling heavenly vision above
▸Quiz clue pattern: Crete, Toledo, "The Greek", Doménikos Theotokópoulos, signing in Greek letters

Key works

The Burial of the Count of Orgaz (1586–1588)

Church of Santo Tomé, Toledo

Saints Stephen and Augustine lower the count into his tomb while heaven opens above; still in the church it was painted for

Image: El Greco · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

View of Toledo (c. 1599–1600)

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Brooding green landscape under a thunderous sky; one of the most famous landscapes in Spanish art

Image: El Greco · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

The Disrobing of Christ (El Expolio) (1577–1579)

Toledo Cathedral (sacristy)

Christ in a blazing red robe hemmed in by a crowd; the cathedral chapter disputed its fee and content

Image: El Greco · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

The Opening of the Fifth Seal (1608–1614)

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Late apocalyptic vision of St John; often linked to Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon

Image: El Greco · CC0, Wikimedia Commons

Laocoön (c. 1610–1614)

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

His only surviving mythological painting, with Toledo standing in for Troy in the background

Image: El Greco · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

Quick-fire facts

•His real name was Doménikos Theotokópoulos; "El Greco" means "The Greek" and he usually signed his works in Greek letters.
•He was born in Crete, then a Venetian possession, where he trained as a painter of Byzantine icons.
•In Venice he was influenced by Titian and Tintoretto before moving to Rome and then to Toledo in 1577.
•Philip II disliked his Martyrdom of St Maurice painted for the Escorial, so El Greco never became a royal court painter.
•The Burial of the Count of Orgaz commemorates a 14th-century nobleman whose burial, legend said, was attended by Saints Stephen and Augustine.
•Neglected for centuries, he was championed around 1900 and admired by Picasso, the Expressionists and the Cubists.

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Sources

Encyclopaedia Britannica — El Greco
Metropolitan Museum of Art — View of Toledo (collection entry)
E. H. Gombrich — The Story of Art