Rome
1570
Madrid
Doménico Theotocópulos was born in Candia (Crete). The Island was part of the Republic of Venice by then.
El Greco is a unique case in the development of Art History: until 1567, he worked in Crete as a painter of icons, following the post-Byzantine style.
He gained great fame as ‘Master Painter’, although only three works from that time are known with certainty: The Dormition of the Virgin, Saint Luke painting the Virgin and The Adoration of the Magi.
After gaining his reputation as ‘Master Painter’, in 1567 he travelled to Venice, where he started to get his first commissions.
Although other well-known Cretan painters travelled to Venice too, they normally did it just to enrich their knowledge and then they came back to Crete.
What makes El Greco so unique is that he moved to Venice in order to change his cultural universe to become an Occidental painter.
Three years later, he settled in Rome where he acquired Renaissance artistic theories. As a consequence, his work went through a radical transformation.
El Greco reaches his peak as a painter: his mastering of colour and brightness is that of a virtuoso. In fact, up to the 20th Century, most of his works from this period were attributed to Venetian painters such as Tintoretto, Bassano or Veronés.
However, El Greco moved from being extraordinary to being unique when he settled in Spain.
El Greco then moved to Madrid, in the time King Felipe II was developing the great work of El Escorial.
El Greco got some commissions from Felipe II, but his works never pleased the King.
1577
El Greco settled in Toledo, town he will make his own and where he spent his best years as an artist.
In Toledo he painted works that are still today in the same place where they were created, in the so-called El Greco Venues.
Just as he spent his life in Toledo, his painting became more and more subjective and intellectual.
El Greco’s studio in Toledo had a great activity, since the painter was receiving commissions constantly. Many of them ended up in contention.
1576
EL GRECO´S TOLEDO
El Greco lived half of his life in Toledo, this being the most fruitful period in his career. The city's cosmopolitan character, the existence of a strong civil society and a rich cultural life, together with the international vocation of the governing classes and the commencement of grand building projects designed to modernize the city, no doubt played a part in determining the artist's choice to live there.
In this respect, we must bear in mind the fact that Toledo had previously been an important Medieval city and the cradle of Spanish humanism thanks to its secular multiculturalism.
As such, it had served as an internationally renowned cultural and symbolic point of reference, given that the city was also the seat of the head of the Spanish Church, in recognition of its past as the capital of the Visigoth Kingdom. The city's governing classes also became the leaders of the kingdom and the fashions that reigned supreme in Toledo became representative examples of one of the most universal cultures we have ever known.
Imperial Toledo
This was the ambience that El Greco found upon his arrival in 1577. Years later, the definitive exit of the Royal Court marked the beginning of Toledo's gradual decline and its ultimate decadence. Toledo's leaders reacted by promoting the civic pride of the city's inhabitants, an initiative in which our artist played an active part. Thanks to this, Toledo became the imperial city that enjoyed the monarchy's favor, the city of God blessed with the protection of the saints, as depicted by El Greco in his paintings.
A consequence of these changes was the gradual decline of the city's leading cultural role, something that was already evident upon the death of our genial artist.
The situation worsened still further throughout the course of the seventeenth century, although one positive outcome consisted of the survival of one of the most outstanding historic cities in Europe, both due to the exceptional state of preservation of its monumental buildings and landscapes and the quality and significance of many of its sights, which have become universal symbols of Spanish culture.
Crete
Toledo
Cradle of Hispanic Humanism,
Imperial town,
Toledo gathers
many of the universal symbols of Spanish Culture
1577
1541
1567
