Years El Greco example essay topic
446 words
Biography Dome nikos Theotokopoulos, or El Greco (meaning "The Greek") as he later became known, was born in Crete in 1541. Details of his early life and training are sketchy, but he probably first studied painting in his native city. He was an intellectual man, whose taste for classical and contemporary literature seems to have developed in his youth. Around 1566, El Greco went to Venice, where he remained until 1570. He acquired much inspiration from the High Renaissance style that was popular there and from his "mentor", Titian. Further inspiration came during the years El Greco spent in Rome, from 1570 to 1576. There he met several Spaniards associated with the church in Toledo, who may have persuaded him to come to Spain. In 1576 he left Italy and arrived in Toledo, Spain in the spring of 1577. There he painted his most famous works, including pieces that filled the monastery-palace of El Escorial and the Toledo Cathedral. El Greco was a prosperous man. He had a large house in Toledo, where he received members of the nobility and the intellectual elite. El Greco died in Toledo on April 7, 1614, and he was buried there in Santo Domingo el Antigua.
He did not have followers, and his art was forgotten for almost 300 years. The re-discovery of his painting was a sensation; he became one of the most popular masters of the past, his painting roused the interest of collectors, artists, lovers of art and art historians. El Greco's Style El Greco's artistic roots are diverse due to the amount of travel he did. Interestingly, he did not fall under the spell of Raphael and Michelangelo, but was drawn rather to artists like Correggio and Parmigianino and their daring distortions of the human form and chaotic compositions. His figures elongated into flame-like forms and he usually painted in cold, eerie, bluish colors to express intense religious feeling. In "The Story of Painting", Sister Wendy says, "His elongated figures, ever straining upward, his intense and unusual colors, his passionate involvement in his subject, his ardor and his energy, all combine to create a style that is wholly distinct and individual.
He is the great fuser, and also the transfuser, setting the stamp of his angular intensity upon all that he creates". His painting style always gave rise to much discussion as they often went "off the canvas", meaning that they posed some deeper questions about life. The emotionalism and imperfection as opposed to rationality and idealism in El Greco's paintings identify them as Baroque art.
