El Greco oil painting antique, Greece paintings supplier

El Greco
Greek Mannerist artist
born 1541 - died 7 April 1614

Also known as: Domenikos Theotokopoulos. GRECO, EL, the name commonly given to Domenikos Theotokopoulos (d. 1614), Cretan painter, architect and sculptor. El Greco was born in Crete, between 1545 and 1550, and announces his Cretan origin by his signature in Greek letters on his most important pictures, especially on the St Maurice in the Escorial. El Greco appears to have studied art first of all in Venice, and on arriving in Rome in 1570 is described as having been a pupil of Titian, in a letter written by the miniaturist, Giulio Clovio, addressed to Cardinal Alessandro Farnesi, dated the 15th of November 1570.

Although a student under Titian, El Greco was at no time an exponent of his master's spirit, and his early historical pictures were attributed to many other artists, but never to Titian. Of his early works, two pictures of The Healing of the Blind Man at Dresden and Palma, and the four of Christ driving the money-changers out of the Temple in the Yarborough collection, the Cork collection, the National Gallery, and the Beruete collection at Madrid, are the chief. His first authentic portrait is that of his fellow-countryman, Giulio Clovio. It was painted between 1570 and 5578, is signed in Greek characters, and preserved at Naples, and the last portrait El Greco painted under the influence of the Italian school appears to be that of a cardinal now in the National Gallery, of which four replicas painted in Spain are known. El Greco appears to have come to Spain in 1577, but, on being questioned two years later in connection with a judicial suit, as to when El Greco arrived in the country, and for what purpose El Greco came, declined to give any information. El Greco was probably attracted by the prospect of participating in the decoration of the Escorial, and El Greco appears to have settled down in Toledo, where his first works were the paintings for the high altar of Santo Domingo, and his famous picture of The Disrobing of Christ in the sacristy of the cathedral. It was in connection with this last-named work that El Greco proved refractory, and the records of a law-suit respecting the price to be paid to him give us the earliest information of the artist's sojourn in Spain. In 1590, El Greco painted the History of St Maurice for Philip II, and in 1578, his masterpiece, entitled The Burial of the Count Orgaz. This magnificent picture, one of the finest in Spain, is at last being appreciated, and can only be put a, little below the masterpieces of Velázquez. It is a strangely individual work, representing Spanish character even more truthfully than did any Spanish artist, and it gathers up all the fugitive moods, the grace and charm, the devices and defects of a single race, and gives them complete stability in their wavering expressions. - El Greco oil painting antique, Greece paintings supplier - antique El Greco oil painting Greece supplier, antique oil paintings El Greco Bio by Greece antique oil painting El Greco supplier, supply El Greco Greece oil paintings antique.

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