If you’ve looked at the works of El Greco even once, you’ll surely have noticed his unmistakable style. In a room crowded with other paintings, it’s impossible not to notice these beautiful works, marked by a surprising modernity in both line and use of colour.
I’ve always considered El Greco a brilliant artist and a great forerunner of his time. An undisputed master of the Spanish Renaissance, he was able to develop an extremely personal style in an age when breaking the mould was anything but easy.
In what sense?
We’re in the age of the Counter-Reformation, when even artists had to obey strict rules to avoid the tribunal of the Holy Inquisition. Just think that, in this period, even Michelangelo’s fresco in the Sistine Chapel was altered, adding “breeches” to all the parts the artist had left nude.
In this context, the art of El Greco was the reflection of his bold character, which made him a great inspiration even for later generations of artists.
Did you know he even inspired Picasso?
Below I tell you his story and 5 works by El Greco to discover the Spanish Renaissance.
Let’s go!
El Greco: where he was born and the artist’s story
El Greco was actually named Doménikos Theotokópoulos.
Guess where he was born?
As you’ll easily have gathered from his name and nickname, this artist was born in Greece, specifically in Crete, in 1541, and by the age of 22 he had already opened his own workshop on the island. He didn’t stay there long, and his art took a real turn when he moved to Venice in 1567, where he encountered the art of Bassano, Veronese, Tintoretto and, above all, Titian.
Remember that Crete was under Venetian rule at the time, so the move was driven above all by the desire to make a name for himself in a great city, a hub of culture and art.
But probably not even Venice was enough for him.
In 1570 El Greco moved to Rome, where he entered the circle of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese (thanks to the miniaturist Giulio Clovio) and frequented his palace. It was there that he met a stimulating group of Spanish intellectuals, who would convince him to move to Toledo. During his years in Rome, in fact, El Greco opened a workshop but never enjoyed the success he deserved.
Here’s a curiosity
Famous is his anecdote about Michelangelo: it seems that, contemplating the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel, he said that Buonarroti “was a good man, but he didn’t know how to paint”. After which he offered to repaint the Last Judgment wall himself. Fortunately, he was never granted permission!
Since he couldn’t get his career off the ground, around 1577 El Greco moved to Spain, hoping for the protection of King Philip II: a favour that, however, never came.
Despite everything, it was there that his first important commissions arrived, and where he met the love of his life, doña Jerónima de las Cuevas. It seems they never became husband and wife, but they had a son. Hers is the face of most of the Madonnas El Greco painted.
In Toledo he found such success and fortune that, in his mature years, he owned a whole grand apartment suite.
He died there in 1614.
El Greco’s art: elongated forms, astigmatism and strong colours
You should know that the works of El Greco were shaped by very different factors.
Trained in a Byzantine environment, where austere figures were still painted on monochrome backgrounds, he refined his art by observing the works of the Venetian masters of colour. Despite his criticisms, during his stay in Rome his art was indelibly influenced by Buonarroti.
His paintings therefore absorbed wildly different influences, which he reworked in a completely original way.
In what way?
The figures in El Greco’s works are pale, olive-skinned, with elongated forms, and wear extremely strong, almost jarring colours: acid green, blood red, black, yellow, purple. His works often look sombre, pervaded by a strange light, as if we were in the midst of a storm, under a leaden sky.
The rhythm he gives his figures brings him close to Mannerism, but his originality also makes him a forerunner of the most recent research into colour. It was precisely his use of colour, which he declared to be more important than drawing, that characterised him and secured his success (but also drew much criticism).
As for his elongated figures, some have even theorised that El Greco had eyesight problems and painted this way for that reason.
Of course, we’ll never know for certain.
5 works to understand El Greco’s art
Below are some of the most famous works by El Greco that will help you understand his art and his personality.
Fancy finding out which they are, and what troubles they caused the artist?
All you have to do is read on!
1 – El Greco: The Opening of the Fifth Seal, the Vision of Saint John
Painted between 1608 and 1614, El Greco’s Vision of Saint John was part of an altarpiece for the hospital of the same name in Toledo.
This work shows the opening of the fifth seal of the Apocalypse, which reads:
“When the Lamb opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony they had maintained. They cried out with a loud voice: ‘How long, O sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?’ And to each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers, who were to be killed as they had been, was complete.”
Unsettling, isn’t it?
El Greco probably didn’t manage to finish “the opening of the fifth seal” before his death, but this painting has had considerable importance. According to many scholars, the work influenced and inspired even Pablo Picasso in creating one of his most famous canvases, which paved the way for Cubism: Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.
Look at the group of souls in the background: can you see the resemblance?
In this canvas you can clearly make out all the elements that characterise El Greco’s works. You can observe them in the Mannerist use of colour, but also in the depiction of the torment of some figures and in the very Expressionist rendering of the sky.
2 – Penitent Magdalene: look at the hands…
One of the first works the artist created in Spain is the Penitent Magdalene, in 1576/78, today in Budapest, at the Museum of Fine Arts.
Doesn’t it remind you of another important Italian artist?
This canvas in fact bears witness to the influence of Titian: just look at the jar at the bottom left and the way the reflection of the glass is rendered. But this work already contains the typical style of El Greco. The figure is elongated, and the leaden tones of the sky, the robes and the landscape convey the emotional tension and the idea of repentance.
The torment of the soul of El Greco’s Magdalene is palpable in all the elements around her. The theme of repentance was very dear to the Counter-Reformation, and the Magdalene embodied it perfectly.
The jar and the precious fabrics she is shedding are the worldly elements from which the sinner’s spirituality is drawing away. The skull is an image of the transience of life: the strong contrast between a young woman and a dead man’s skull conveys the message very clearly.
Did you notice the hands?
In my opinion they’re one of the most beautiful things about this work: they are what point to the fundamental elements of El Greco’s work. I’m talking about the skull, the book of scripture and the breast, where the repentant heart finally turns towards the divine light.
3 – Saint Maurice: El Greco and the Inquisition
Dated between 1580 and 1582, Saint Maurice had been commissioned from El Greco by the King of Spain, Philip II, in person.
The martyr’s story is divided into three parts: in the foreground is the Roman general Maurice, who decides to face martyrdom together with his soldiers, all Christians. Behind, as if in a procession, his ordeal is depicted, by order of the emperor Diocletian.
Hagiography tells that he and his soldiers were decimated, that is, one in ten was killed. The story ends with the glorification of the holy martyr and the light descending from the group of angels.
The palms they hold are a symbol of martyrdom.
Beautiful, isn’t it?
And yet this work caused the artist no small amount of trouble!
When it was presented to the king, he didn’t like it at all, and it was soon replaced by another canvas.
Tied to this painting is also a much-quoted anecdote (though hard to document): it’s said he was reproached for painting angels that were too large and lavish, and that the witty painter replied that he had given them such big wings precisely so they could rise to heaven faster.
What is certain is that El Greco did indeed have dealings with the Inquisition of Toledo, but in 1582 and as a mere interpreter, defending a countryman accused of being a Morisco.
4 – El Greco’s Burial of the Count of Orgaz, and a family reunion
El Greco’s most famous work is precisely the Burial of the Count of Orgaz, made in 1586 in Toledo.
The composition is divided into two perfectly symmetrical parts, with a separation marked by a row of heads.
The lower area represents the earthly realm, where the count is being buried. It’s here that the interment of his material body takes place. Then, in the upper part, there’s a celestial zone, where we find Jesus, the Virgin Mary and the Saints welcoming the soul of the good count.
The two spheres of El Greco’s Burial of the Count of Orgaz are significantly divided by the heads, which represent the intellective and thus more spiritual part of our earthly body.
The theatricality of the scene and the profusion of splendid details will leave you breathless.
But there’s more!
In this canvas, in fact, El Greco hid some contemporary figures. Philip II, the sovereign of Spain, is depicted as a blessed soul, floating on the right. Almost a joke in poor taste, if we consider that, at the time of the painting, the king was still alive! Probably other figures are hidden along with him.
It seems the funeral procession also includes a self-portrait of the artist and of his son. The man who has his back to us and lifts his head to the sky would be the painter himself, while the boy pointing to the dead count would be his son.
A lovely family reunion!
5 – Adoration of the Shepherds
El Greco worked on this piece until the end of his life, between 1612 and 1614: he painted it for his own tomb, in the church of Santo Domingo el Antiguo in Toledo, and it’s today at the Prado in Madrid. The lines are now undefined, dissolved in a shimmer of light, while the figures rotate around the brightest point of the scene: the Christ Child.
The rhythm of El Greco’s Adoration of the Shepherds and the ecstasy on the faces of those present make the scene feel like a vortex. The light seems to come from the little one himself, whose miraculous birth is being celebrated: a true spiritual testament of the painter.
Remember when I was telling you about El Greco’s Madonnas?
A detail of the artist’s Madonnas is that they all look alike: the model is in fact almost always the same, the woman he loved all his life but never married, Jerónima de las Cuevas.
Imagine the scandal, had they discovered the face of an unmarried woman, a sinner, portrayed as the Madonna in Counter-Reformation Spain!
Where to see El Greco’s works
El Greco’s works are scattered across Spain and the great museums of the world, but his true city is Toledo, where he spent his final decades and where you can still breathe his art:
- The Burial of the Count of Orgaz is in the church of Santo Tomé in Toledo, exactly where it was painted.
- Toledo Cathedral, the El Greco Museum and the Tavera Hospital hold other works of his (the Vision of Saint John is instead today at the Metropolitan Museum in New York).
- At the Prado in Madrid you’ll find the Adoration of the Shepherds, the Nobleman with his Hand on his Chest and other masterpieces; the Penitent Magdalene is at the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest.
The best way to understand El Greco is to walk through Toledo: if you’re setting off from Madrid, a guided tour of Toledo with entry to Santo Tomé takes you in front of the Burial of the Count of Orgaz and through the streets the painter loved all his life.
And you, which work by El Greco struck you the most?
