 |
 |
 |
|
             |
||||
 |
 |
|
|
|
| Greco (El) (1541-1614) |
||||
| "As surely as the rate of payment is inferior to the value of my sublime work, so will my name go down to posterity as one of the greatest geniuses of Spanish painting," El Greco confidently asserted. Extravagant and rebellious, he hired musicians to play while he ate and prided himself on his refusal to comply with his clients' demands. "The Greek," who signed paintings with his Greek name, Domenikos Theotokopoulos, was forever influenced by his birthplace. Crete was a center for the Byzantine artistic tradition, concerned more with abstraction and pattern than with recording natural appearances. From 1568 to 1577, El Greco lived in Venice and Rome, where Titian's broad brushwork and bright colors, Tintoretto's sweeping movement, and Michelangelo's monumental figures reshaped his Byzantine heritage without replacing it. |
According to legend, when Pope Pius proposed covering Michelangelo's Last Judgment nudes, El Greco alienated many by offering to paint another mural equally as good if they demolished Michelangelo's. He soon left for Spain. Failing to win favor at the Madrid court, he settled in Toledo, Spain's cultural and religious center. There he developed his trademark style—elongated figures, ecstatically free brushwork, expressive lighting, and acid color—a manner so personal that his assistants never attempted to follow his example. Acclaimed for his penetrating portraits, El Greco also received ecclesiastical commissions throughout Spain, including designing altarpieces. His paintings of Toledo are among Europe's first pure landscapes. The Getty Museum |
|||
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
The Greco Collection: "Portrait of a Young Man" by Greco (El) Code: 401074 Fine art Giclee canvas print wrap on 5/8" stretchers. Canvas size 24" (609.6mm) deep x width in pro. £74.00 (Inc.VAT). UK Postage & packing + £10.00. |
|||||
| Return to main menu | ||||||
 |
||||||
|
||||||
[Terms and Conditions] [Privacy Policy]