El+Greco

El Greco was born in Crete in 1541 and died on April 7, 1614. He was a painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El Greco" (//The Greek //) was a nickname, a reference to his Greek origin. 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. During his stay in Italy, El Greco enriched his style with elements of Mannerism and of the Renaissance. 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 but found appreciation in the 20th century. El Greco is regarded as a precursor of both Expressionism and Cubism, while his personality and works were a source of inspiration for poets and writers. El Greco 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.

 El Greco discarded classicist criteria such as measure and proportion. He believed that grace is the supreme quest of art, but the painter achieves grace only if he manages to solve the most complex problems with obvious ease.El Greco regarded color as the most important and the most ungovernable element of painting, and declared that color had primacy over form. 

 **MAJOR WORKS:**

 **painting:**

 Burial of Count Orgaz 

not pictured: View of Toledo, The Last Supper, The Entombment of Christ **sculpture:**  //Miracle of St. Ildefonso //

 **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">architecture: ** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> church and Monastery of Santo Domingo el Antiguo