El Greco Biography & Fine Art Prints
El Greco was born in 1541 in Crete and died April 7, 1614 in Toledo, Spain.
El Greco was a prominent painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance and contributed many masterpieces to the movement. Despite this, El Greco never forgot that he was of Greek descent and usually signed his paintings in Greek letters with his full name, thereby underscoring his origins. He was born in Crete but decided to go to Venice to study. In 1577 he emigrated to Toled in Spain where he lived and worked until the end of his life. El Greco is the best-known Greek-born painter in the world. His highly individual dramatic and expressionistic style met with the puzzlement of his contemporaries but gained newfound appreciation in the 20th century. He is best known for tortuously elongated figures and often fantastic or phantasmagorical pigmentation; traits of an art which for certain intellectuals provides an ideal combination of the Eastern tradition of Byzantium and Western civilization.
Some of El Greco's most famous paintings include:
The Adoration of the Magi
El Greco was a prominent painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance and contributed many masterpieces to the movement. Despite this, El Greco never forgot that he was of Greek descent and usually signed his paintings in Greek letters with his full name, thereby underscoring his origins. He was born in Crete but decided to go to Venice to study. In 1577 he emigrated to Toled in Spain where he lived and worked until the end of his life. El Greco is the best-known Greek-born painter in the world. His highly individual dramatic and expressionistic style met with the puzzlement of his contemporaries but gained newfound appreciation in the 20th century. He is best known for tortuously elongated figures and often fantastic or phantasmagorical pigmentation; traits of an art which for certain intellectuals provides an ideal combination of the Eastern tradition of Byzantium and Western civilization.
Some of El Greco's most famous paintings include:
The Adoration of the Magi
