EL GRECO DOMENIKOS THEOTOKOPOULOS

El Greco Domenikos Theotokopoulos

Denise Cervantes
Salt Lake Community College

EL GRECO DOMENIKOS THEOTOKOPOULOS

El Greco, also known as Domenikos Theotokopoulos, was born on October 1, 1541 in

Candia, Crete and died on April 7, 1614 at the age of 74. El Greco, means the greek, which is
how he got his nickname. He was known as El Greco in Italy, they were all known by their
custom identity. El Greco was said to be a greek. His father, Georgios Theotokopoulos, was a
merchant and tax collector. They didnt really know what had happened to his mother. El Greco
had an older brother, Manoussos Theotokopoulos, he was also a merchant; a rich merchant.
El Greco had a passion to classical literature since he was in his teens. Other than
painting he also studied the classics of ancient Greece and the classics of Latin. He studied in
Venice. Not, only was he a painter, but he was also a sculptor and an architect. Most of his works
were from the Venetian Renaissance style. He would mostly place figures floating out of
nowhere. He had a unique and only style for painting God. He liked to add many details to many
of his paintings. When he would paint it was seen as if he was painting his heart out. He had a
big passion towards painting God. The painter was religious, he would help out other churches to
paint murals and walls. The church he would work for was the Catholic church.
El Greco became a good friend with the pope from the church in Toledo, church of Santo
Domingo el Antiguo. Even though they have started bad, they ended good.
El Greco was sent to Toledo by Diego del Castillo to do him some paintings of saints and
angels. When El Greco had arrived in Toledo he had made a commision with the church of
Toledo even though he did not like Toledo in any certain way, he would still find the good things
in that place. The commision was that he was going to do all the paintings necessary for the
Catholic church. When he first started to do the paintings, he would be criticized by the pope of

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how he was suppose to do the paintings. They did not trust him. Also, they would have him do
the total opposite of what his inspiration would tell him to do. He would be criticized of his
paintings and his feelings toward God.
El Greco was sent to paint a portrait of the daughter of the Castillo family. Jeronima del
Castillo was beautiful and engaged. As, Jeronima and El Greco would spend time knowing each
other through the process of the painting. They fell in love. It was an impossible love, because
Jeronima was engaged and El Greco knew that her parents werent going to accept him. Their
love wasnt going to change. But, through time Jeronima realized she wasnt going to be with El
Greco, she had made it cleared to him that she was going to get married to Luis and she didnt
want to hurt him.
Luis found out that El Greco and Jeronima had something going on. Luis challenged
Greco to a fencing fight and wanted to kill him; El Greco didnt let him.
A month after, El Greco didnt paint, he was still in recovery from the injuries he had
after fencing, but Luis was not going to leave him alone. El Greco was sent to jail because of
Luis. Luis had told the Holy Office that Greco was involved with Satan. They had sent El Greco
to jail without proof. After he had mentioned his love for god and how his paintings influenced
the love towards him, they had pleaded him as innocent.
When El Greco got out of jail, he found out Jeronima was dead. After a while he realized
that Jeronima was pregnant and had a baby, El Grecos only son; Jorge Manuel. Jeronima and
Greco never got married, it is said that he had another attachment in Italy.
After not liking Toledo, the painter ended up living there; the rest of his life. Its
impressive how he did not like Toledo but still that was the place that saw him grow each day.

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With his very first projects such as The Assumption of the Virgin. That painting was located in
the high altar mural of the church in Toledo. That was part of his commission. Also, what was
located in another altar was the painting named, Trinity. In the lateral altar there was the painting
of Resurrection. These were said to be the most inspirational from the Spain population. These
paintings showed his creativity and geniousness. After the rest of his other paintings were being
judged and criticized. They wouldnt let him inspire himself and paint what was on his mind.
They didnt even let him pick the right colors. But through time they had to get use to what he
wanted to do, El Greco didnt let anyone speak for him; he was very wise.
Each and every painting have their own meaning. Although they are quite similar with
the texture and the dramatic scenes. The speak their own words. When you describe the paintings
of El Greco I would mentions the strange shapes and poses create sense of wonder of each
paintings. If you check close usually he has the poses faces upward or in different directions and
it's rare when they are look forward. The only time he would have the paintings forward was
when he was working in a portrait.
El Greco had only developed three different landscapes through his whole career. The
View of Toledo, he painted this dark and cloudy; just like every other painting you the
dramatization going on. It was said that he rearranged some of the building to his work. He
would like to use dark colors, he mentioned that those kind of colors had more hidden meaning
to it. Which made the work more powerful and interesting. He knew exactly how to catch his
audience attention. Although, like I said earlier he didnt really care what others thought of his
work.

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There was another work that he had developed that was much similar to The View of
Toledo. The work was called Laocoon their were some things being substituted so they wouldnt
look the same but they had a similar meaning to it. He had put less of classical tradition to this
work.
El Greco did many religious paintings, but he would also do many portraits and they
would be as good as the religious ones. The most popular ones were Fray Felix Hortensio
Paravicino & Cardinal Don Fernando Nino de Guevara. He had his ways to pose each of these
men. He knew how to pose them in a unique way. The right way to show the real them. He
would know the person just by painting them. It was surprising how he would see inside their
souls. El Greco would put so much emotion, he would end up knowing the person more than
they knew themselves.
El Greco knew how to draw and had the passion to do it. He knew that his passion was to
help the churches by painting murals in the altars. Thats how he would pay his dues. Although
just like any other person that wants to be successful, you need to start from the bottom just like
he did. Through time he was able to express what was on his mind through religious paintings.
El Greco was someone to look up to, someone that brings inspiration.

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Opinion
My opinion through this artist is that there was something in him that inspired me. El
Greco didnt care what other people thought about his works; all he cared about was how he felt
about them. All of his paintings were dramatic. He let the paintings talk for himself, which was
one of the reasons I liked his artwork. The paintings didnt need much explanation, they were
already explained through the paintings, faces, colors and positions.
El Greco was intelligent and brave. He didnt let anyone get to him and bring him down.
He was always ready to fight back when it was needed. Which was why he is one of my
favorites. I thought it was interesting how he died about 500 years ago and his paintings are still
as popular as they were before.
I learned so many things about the Catholic religion just by seeing some of his paintings.
They show so much emotion. You can tell that he did this with his hearts. He had demonstrated
his love towards God with a simple brush.
Its nice to know that a painting is worth more than a million words. It also depends on
the artist that painted the piece of art. Usually you have artist that love what they are doing so it
makes it more exciting on how they piece of work would turn out.
In overall, I was interesting in each of his works. They might all look the same, but they
have their own meaning. They mention different sayings. A work of art says more than a
thousand words. I look up to those that know how to draw and have a lot of imagination in them.

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References
(n.d.). (2011). Retrieved from http://www.elgreco.net/resurrection.jsp
Wethey, Harold E. (n.d.). El Greco. Retrieved from
https://www.britannica.com/biography/El-Greco
(n.d). (2002). El Greco Foundation. Retrieved from
http://www.el-greco-foundation.org/biography.html

Christiansen, Keith. El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos) (15411614). In Heilbrunn

Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000.
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/grec/hd_grec.htm (October 2004)