I.

Introduction

El Greco (1541-1614), Mannerist painter, active mainly in Spain. His work, with that of Francisco de Goya and Diego Velázquez, represents the acme of Spanish art.

El Greco (meaning “The Greek”) was born in Candia, now Iráklion, Crete (then a possession of the Republic of Venice), in 1541 and was named Domenikos Theotokopoulos. Details of his early life and training are sketchy, but he probably first studied painting in his native city. Although no works from his first years survive, they were probably painted in the late Byzantine style popular in Crete at the time (see Byzantine Art and Architecture). Reminiscences of this style are seen in his later work. He was an erudite man, whose taste for Classical and contemporaneous literature seems to have developed in his youth.