Why el greco important

He became vastly interested in the new Mannerist movement, a group who disavowed the mere imitation of nature in art, and instead sought to express the underlying psychological aspects of a work beyond its mythological or religious themes. These concepts informed a body of work that is deeply evocative of the Divine and universally noted for manifesting the spirituality that lay beneath all being.

Little is known of his childhood, other than the fact that he chose to be an artist at a very young age. The Holy Trinity , painted between and , depicts God holding a dying Christ in his arms, as they float amidst clouds in heaven, with the dove of the Holy Spirit flying over their heads. Surrounding them are six angels in colored robes, and behind them, coming from above is a bright golden light.

The painting is part of El Greco's first major commission for the Church Santo Domingo in Toledo, and, as soon as it was completed it established him within the community as a revered artist.

This early example of El Greco's work presents a synthesis of the two major influences that define him: the Renaissance masters and the Byzantine iconic tradition. Art historian Keith Christiansen claims that, "He made elongated, twisting forms, radical foreshortening, and unreal colors the very basis of his art. One of his main characteristic techniques is also already used in the work profusely, which is the use of highlights next to dark and thick outlines to create a profoundly dramatic effect.

A specific interpretation can be found in the colors employed, where the gloomy aspect of the clouds can be seen to represent death, opposing the golden rays above that symbolize the eternal; the two emphasize the duality between life and the ever after.

Overall, this is the main interpretation of the work: an embodiment of the eternal as a reality thereby instilling a new sense of hope and devotion in the faithful. This painting is a portrait of a nobleman or knight around the age of 30, whose real name is unknown.

He is dressed in traditional Spanish clothing holding a sword in one hand while the other is poised over his heart. Staring intensely at the viewer, he is portrayed in a manner that is profoundly realistic yet also imaginative. With an aspect deeply characteristic of El Greco's work, the depiction possesses specific technically accurate features such as the beard, combined with stylized elements, such as the elongated fingers and torso.

The muted, dark colors and tones contrast greatly with the white of the ruffles. The dramatic use of contrast and light greatly enhances the emotional and psychological depths that define the subject. Although El Greco was mostly known for his religious themes, he was also a prolific portraitist, known for capturing the character and personality of his subjects in an intuitive way.

This painting is considered to be his most famous portrait. It is also an example of his breaking away from the traditional Renaissance style and his Byzantine background through a more Mannerist, imaginative mode. El Greco was known to claim that an artist "must study the Masters but guard the original style that beats within your soul," emphasizing the importance of establishing and being true to his own vision and individual artistic language.

This portrait can be seen as a direct influence on the portraiture works later developed by other art movements such as Expressionism. In a broader way, El Greco's ability to transform reality to expose an inner vision or inner world, can be seen as a precursor of Modern Art.

In this context, it is also of reference to Picasso's painting entitled Portrait of a Painter, after El Greco , from , that can be seen as a tribute to El Greco's way of envisioning and understanding art, which established a great influence on Picasso from the very beginning of his artistic career. In the work, Picasso combined El Greco's use of dark browns and ochres with his signature Cubist language, echoing centuries later, El Greco's ever-present iconography.

The painting is featured in the cover of a Vangelis album entitled El Greco from This large painting, three and half meters wide by almost five meters high, is universally regarded as El Greco's greatest masterpiece and most famous work. His contribution to the development of the movement is marked by visual compositions that moved away from an idealized perfection into a world charged with tension and emotional complexity through form, imagination, and expression.

El Greco referred to this painting as his 'sublime work. The funerary scene is portrayed at the bottom of the painting, with the Count surrounded by the two saints, followed by other noble men and clergyman of the time in 16 th century clothing, captured in a static way.

It is contrasted with the celestial kingdom in heaven that includes Mary, Christ, God, John the Baptist, and the angels, who all observe the scene, depicted in a more organic free flowing way, so as to represent the intangibility and immateriality of spirit.

The young boy at the left is said to be Jorge Manuel, the artist's son. One possible interpretation that is in the juxtaposition of the worlds: the physical world of earth and the spiritual world of heaven, each portrayed in their own ways. Improve your grasp on grammar and vocab!

El Greco or 'The Greek' is undoubtedly one of the first names to be mentioned when discussing great Spanish artwork, but it also crops up when the Greeks discuss their own artistic heritage. This makes the life and works of El Greco somewhat complicated and his place in Spanish art history less than straightforward.

Nonetheless, he appears time and again as a pivotal, innovative and important figure and no trip to Spain would be complete without learning about him El Greco was born in Crete in and whilst he spent very little time there, his creative talents were nurtured when he studied at the Cretan School of post-Byzantine art.

Despite his obvious ties to his homeland, we know hardly anything about his early life and few of his works from this time have survived the test of time. On coming of age, the young artist swiftly headed to Italy to learn from the great masters of his time. Venice was the scene of his initial artistic training and set the precedent for his future works. He was inspired by Titian and Tintoretto at the Venetian school of the Italian Renaissance before moving to Rome and marvelling at Michelangelo.

He began studying elements of Renaissance painting, especially perspective and figural construction, to learn how to depict complex narratives. However, as a young foreign painter his work was not well received.

This position makes it clear that he was well connected, possibly recommended by a Venetian friend. He drew upon the popular Renaissance style of the time but sought to distinguish himself by finding new ways to interpret the traditional religious subject matter.

He found innovation in the Mannerists who were rejecting ideals of harmonious proportion, balance, static beauty, and naturalist presence. This resulted in works that contained both the agile, elongated, and romanticized figures and chromatic framework of the Renaissance with the violent perspectives, strange altitudes, and tempestuous gestures of the Mannerists filtered through his own prolific imagination and expressive view of life.

The visual tension he managed to achieve through artificial distortion and unrealistic colors evoked a narrative drama, which lent a sense of emotional, psychological, and spiritual pulse to his paintings. This is probably due to the fact that he openly criticized Michelangelo, who had died a few years earlier and was still well regarded in Rome.

It is believed that he claimed he, "could replace The Last Judgment with something just as good, and more Christian.

His intense commitment to artistic development and understanding led him to Spain in First he went to Madrid, and then to Toledo, a profoundly commercial, historical, religious, and artistic center. It is generally accepted that it was here that he was named El Greco, 'the Greek,' by his friends. However, the name could have also been derived from his time in Italy, where it was custom to identify an artist by his place of origin.

As he always signed his paintings with his full name in Greek letters, the name El Greco further emphasized the background he was profoundly proud of. Shortly after his arrival, he found himself surrounded by intellectual friends and generous patrons, finding the artistic respect he desired by receiving two major commissions for local churches.

This prolific artistic period also coincides with El Greco's conversion to Catholicism. Although other personal aspects of his personality are unknown, his utter devotion to creation is clear when he claims that he painted, "because the spirits whisper madly inside my head.

This influence on his art was profound, in that it compelled him to articulate his art as an embodiment of a higher realm of spirit, repudiating the experience of painting as one of merely crafting a visually appealing piece. His works from this period are seen as precursors of both Expressionism and Cubism. He is remembered chiefly for his elongated, tortured figures, often religious in nature, the style of which baffled his contemporaries but helped establish his reputation in the years to come.

El Greco was born Domenikos Theotokopoulos on the island of Crete, which was at the time a Venetian possession. Under Titian, El Greco began mastering the fundamental aspects of Renaissance painting—e. El Greco moved to Rome from Venice after a time, remaining from to , staying initially in the palace of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, one of the most influential and wealthy individuals in Rome.

In Madrid, El Greco tried to secure royal patronage from King Philip II, but to no avail, so he moved on to Toledo, where he finally began to find the success history would remember and where he would paint his masterpieces.