El Greco Biography Essay

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Sean Frazier Intro to Art History Section 3 Artist Biography: El Greco Domenikos Theotokopoulos, most commonly known as El Greco (The Greek), was a Greek painter, sculptor, and architect who was known for his originality and his dramatic and expressionistic style. He was born on the island of Crete in 1541. There, he learned the technique of icon painting of the Cretan school, also known as the post-byzantine art. In 1563, when El Greco was 22 years old, a document referred to him as a master painter of the painter’s guild, which leads many people to assume that he had his own workshop. A few of his early works that he completed while in Crete include Dormition of the Virgin (before 1567), The Adoration of the Magi (1565-1567), and St. Luke Painting the Virgin and Child (1567). In 1567, El Greco traveled to Venice to study Italian Renaissance painting and pursue his career as an artist. He was taught by two great Italian painters named Titian and Tintoretto. A couple of his more famous paintings that he created during his time in Venice were The Miracle of Christ Healing the Blind (1567-1570) and Christ Driving the Money Changers from the Temple (1570). These paintings show El Greco’s progression in learning the Western style of painting and the ability to paint more realistic figures and lighting. Some aspects of El Greco’s paintings such as a brush strokes and colors used were similar to Titian’s, showing that he was learning from Titian. In 1570, El Greco moved to Rome where he stayed with a wealthy and important Italian cardinal named Alessandro Farnese in Palazzo Farnese. During his stay in Rome, he became heavily influenced by Mannerism. Mannerism was a style of art that was popular during the Early and High Renaissance, in which the artist would distort, twist, or elongate the figures in their work, rather than making them appear totally

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