|
El Greco
(1541- Apr.7,1614) Greek-Spanish Oil Painting Artist Biography.
El Greco (the Greek) was a painter, sculptor and architect who settled in Spain and is regarded as the first great genius of the Spanish School. His real name was Domenikos Theotocopoulos and it was thus that he signed his paintings throughout his life, always in Greek characters and sometimes followed by Kres (Cretan). Little is known of his youth, In 1566 he is referred to in a Cretan document as a master painter, soon afterwards he went to Venice (Crete was then a Venetian possession), then in 1570 moved to Rome.By 1577 he was at Toledo, where he remained until his death and it was there that he matured his style in which figures elongated into flame-like forms and usually painted in cold, eerie, bluish colors express intense religious feeling.
The most unusual painter in 16th century, El Greco excelled also as a portraitist. He also painted two Views of Toledo (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and Museo del Greco, Toledo), both late works and a mythological painting, Laocoön (1610, National Gallery, Washington), that is unique in his repertoire. The unusual choice of subjects is perhaps explained by the local tradition that Toledo had been founded by descendants of the Trojans. He had a proud temperament, conceiving of himself as an artist-philosopher rather that a craftsman and had a lavish life-style, although he had little success in securing the royal patronage he desired and seems to have had some financial difficulties near the end of his life. His workshop turned out a great many replicas of his oil paintings, but his work was so personal that his influence was slight, his only followers of note being his son and Luis Tristán. Interest in his art revived at the end of the 19th century. The first painter who appears to have noticed the structural code in the morphology of the mature El Greco was Paul Cézanne, one of the forerunners of cubism. Comparative morphological analyses of the two painters revealed their common elements, such as the distortion of the human body, the reddish and un-worked backgrounds and the similarities in the rendering of space.
With the development of Expressionism in the 20th century El Greco was re-discovered into his own. Picasso studied El Greco. The relation between Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and the El Greco's Opening of the Fifth Seal was pinpointed in the early 1980s, when the stylistic similarities and the relationship between the motifs of both works were analyzed. The early explorations of Picasso were to uncover other aspects in the work of El Greco: structural analysis of his compositions, multi-faced refraction of form, interweaving of form and space and special effects of highlights. Several traits of cubism, such as distortions and the materialistic rendering of time, have their analogies in El Greco's work.
The expressionists focused on the expressive distortions of El Greco. According to Franz Marc, one of the principal painters of the movement, "we refer with pleasure and with steadfastness to the case of El Greco, because the glory of this painter is closely tied to the evolution of our new perceptions on art".
Jackson Pollock, a major force in the abstract expressionism movement, was also influenced by El Greco. By 1943, Pollock had completed sixty drawing compositions after El Greco and owned three books on the master.
The strangeness of his art has inspired various theories, for example that he was mad or suffered from astigmatism, but his paintings make complete sense as an expression of the religious fervor of his adopted country. El Greco did not have followers, and his art was forgotten for 300 years. The re-discovery of his painting was a sensation, he became one of the most popular old masters of the past, his painting roused the interest of collectors, artists, lovers of art and art historians. El Greco is now regarded as one of the most important representatives of European Mannerism and way ahead of his time in his painting style.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Views of Toledo
|
Portrait of a Cardinal
|
Opening of the Fifth Seal
|
|
|
View all the el greco oil painting art reproductions.
Jean-Leon Gerome
John Atkinson Grimshaw
Return to the famous world artist biography home page.
Every oil painting reproduction is a 100% hand painted oil painting on canvas done in the traditional manner.
El Greco, Spanish, art museum reproduction oil painting reproductions, art reproduction oil painting, famous art artwork copy oil paintings reproductions, famous artist painters reproduction oil painting art reproductions oil paintings, famous old masters oil painting reproduction, famous artists painters copy oil painting copies, portraiture oil painting, wholesale art reproduction oil paintings, wholesale oil painting art reproductions, Mannerism, views of Toledo, Museo del Greco, replica oil paintings, abstract expressionism oil paintings, cubism, landscapes oil paintings, Cretan, El Greco biography.
|
