(Doménicos Theotocópoulos; Kameia, today Heraklion, Greece current, 1541-Toledo, Spain, 1614) Spanish painter. Formed in their native island as a painter of icons, before moving to Venice, where he met the work of Titian and Tintoretto, artists, along with Michelangelo, who influenced his painting. Beginning in 1570, after a seven-year stay in Rome, El Greco moved to Toledo at the invitation of canon Diego de Castilla, who commissioned an altarpiece for the church of Santo Domingo el Antiguo. After ten years in Toledo, Philip II entrusted him a work for the monastery of El Escorial; But Martyrdom of St. Mauritius not liked the Spanish sovereign, who never contract again the artist. El Greco created his distinctive style after its establishment in Toledo, influenced by the religious environment of the city. Its elongated figures, seem intangible creatures, devoid of physical strength and an intense spirituality. In addition, its cold color palette gets startling impact with the red, blue and white in particular, of a rare intensity and sharpness. Although he painted mainly religious works, he had also important portraits (Felix Paravicino, The gentleman's hand in the chest) and some diverse thematic paintings. The most admired work from Greco is The Burial of Count Orgaz. In his last years he painted Laocoonte, which surprised by its mythological theme, unusual in Spain at the time. Maximum exponent of pictorial manerism in Spain, El Greco is also the first universal figure of Spanish painting and one of the great geniuses in the history of art.
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