Digging The Classics: El Greco

El Greco, nascido Doménikos Theotokópoulos, (1541 – 1614) foi um pintor, escultor e arquiteto da Renascença Espanhola, ou Maneirismo (pra alguns). “El Greco” (O Grego) era um apelido obviamente referente a sua etnia grega. O artista nasceu em Crete, que na época era parte da República de Veneza, e centro da arte Pós-Bizantina. Com 26 anos se mudou pra Veneza e, em 1570, pra Roma, onde abriu o atelier e produziu boa parte do seu trabalho. No entanto, foi na cidade de Toledo, na Espanha, que El Greco se firmou como artista e lá permaneceu até sua morte.

El Greco foi considerado estranho por seus contemporâneos. Forçando a barra, El Greco é muitas vezes considerado um precursor do Expressionismo e do Cubismo. Alguns estudiosos o consideram um artista tão individual que não se enquadra em nenhuma escola de arte convencional. Suas obras são conhecidas pelas figuras tortuosamente alongadas e uma pigmentação fantasmagórica. Aqui, damos foco nos retratos de El Greco, que são absurdos!
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El Greco, born Doménikos Theotokópoulos, (1541 – 1614) was a painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. “El Greco” (The Greek) was a nickname,a reference to his ethnic Greek origin. The artist was born on Crete, which was at that time part of the Republic of Venice, and the centre of Post-Byzantine art. He trained and became a master within that tradition before travelling at age 26 to Venice, as other Greek artists had done. In 1570 he moved to Rome, where he opened a workshop and executed a series of works. In 1577, he moved to Toledo, Spain, where he lived and worked until his death. In Toledo, El Greco received several major commissions and produced his best-known paintings.

El Greco’s dramatic and expressionistic style was met with puzzlement by his contemporaries. El Greco is regarded as a precursor of both Expressionism and Cubism. He has been characterized by modern scholars as an artist so individual that he belongs to no conventional school. He is best known for tortuously elongated figures and often fantastic or phantasmagorical pigmentation.