The Lives of Selected Painters and Authors

The Lives of Selected Painters and Authors

by Daniel Zimmermann

Domenikos Theotokopoulos, the Painter El Greco

Domenikos Theotokopoulos was born in the city of Candia on the island of Crete, a city now called Iráklion. He lived from 1541 to 1614. He is better known as El Greco.

The latter name means the Greek. It is a strange combination of the Italian word Greco, which means Greek, and the Spanish definite article el. In modern Italian, the artist's nickname would be Il Greco, and I am pretty sure that the applicable masculine singular definite article was the same word il at the time when El Greco lived. At least, John Milton, who lived not too much later than El Greco, called one of his poems Il Penseroso.

El Greco spent the early years of his life in his native Crete. Then he worked in Italy for a few years, first in Venice, then at Rome. Finally he settled in Toledo, Spain, where he spent the last 37 years of his life.

His wanderings explain the unusual form of his nickname. He adopted the name Dominico Greco while in Italy, and apparently continued to use this Italian name while in Spain. Since people like to shorten names in ordinary conversation, the Spanish would naturally apply their own definite article to the last part of the name that the artist was using.

Cretan Period

There is little information available concerning El Greco's early years in Crete, but one document reveals that he became adept at painting icons, which were religious paintings depicting such scenes as Mary holding the infant Jesus. A significant feature of these icons was their flat, two dimensional style. There was no attempt to portray depth. This type of painting is known