El Greco (redirected from Domenico Theotocopouli)

El Greco: see Greco, El.

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El Greco

real name Domenikos Theotocopoulos. 1541--1614, Spanish painter, born in Crete; noted for his elongated human forms and dramatic use of colour

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Greco, El 

(real name, Domenikos Theotocopulos). Born 1541 on the island of Crete; died Apr. 7, 1614, in Toledo. Spanish painter; a Greek by origin.

El Greco apparently received his initial training from icon painters on Crete; many of the distinctive qualities of his work have their roots in this formative period. After 1560 he moved to Venice, where he may have studied under Titian. He began working in Rome in 1570. He was influenced by Michelangelo, mannerist painters, and such Venetian masters of the Late Renaissance as Titian, J. Bassano, and Tintoretto. El Greco moved to Spain circa 1577; failing to receive recognition at the court in Madrid, he settled in Toledo. It was in Spain that his talent flourished.

In El Greco’s mature works, which are akin to the religious poetry of such 16th-century Spanish mystics as Juan de la Cruz (John of the Cross), the boundaries between earth and heaven are blurred in the illusorily unlimited space of the painting. Drastic foreshortening and exaggeratedly elongated forms create an effect of rapid change in the scale of figures and objects, which sometimes grow larger and sometimes disappear in the distance. Examples of such works include Martyrdom of St. Maurice (1580–82, El Escorial), Entombment of Count Orgaz (1586–88, Church of Santo Tomé, Toledo), and Holy Family With the Magdalen (c. 1590–95, Cleveland Museum of Art). The most important quality of these works is their palette, which is based on an abundance of unexpected reflexes and on a restless play of contrasting colors that at times flash brilliantly and at times fade with a spectral flickering.

El Greco’s portraits are also characterized by an acutely emotional style of presentation. Some portraits, such as Inquisitor Niño de Guevara (1600–01, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), are marked by ruthless psychological expressiveness.

Elements of unreality increase in El Greco’s late works, such as Opening of the Fifth Seal (1610–14, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) and Laocoön (1610–14, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.). Figures in the late works resemble tongues of fire moving in ash-gray, whirlwind-like space. A deeply tragic feeling pervades View of Toledo (1610–14, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).

El Greco’s paintings are highly subjective; at the same time, they are intensely preoccupied with the noble and dramatic impulses of the human spirit. El Greco’s work was forgotten from the 17th through 19th centuries and was not rediscovered until the early 20th century.

REFERENCES

Vallentin, A. El’Greko (Domeniko Teotokopuli). Moscow, 1962. (Translated from French.)
Kaptereva. T. P. El’ Greko. Moscow, 1965.
Malitskaia, K. M. “Istoki tvorchestva El’ Greko.” In the collection Soobshcheniia Muzeia izobrazitel’nykh iskusstv im. A. S. Pushkina, vol. 5. Moscow, 1975.
Wethey, H. E. El Greco and His School, vols. 1–2. Princeton, 1962.
Cossio, M. B. El Greco. Barcelona, 1972.