El Greco Dies

El Greco, meaning the Greek, was the name given to Domenikos Theotokopoulos, a painter born on the island of Crete who settled in Spain and died in Toledo in 1614. Trained partly in the Byzantine tradition and later in Venice and Rome, he forged a highly personal and dramatic style.

His mature works are marked by elongated figures, intense colors, and a visionary, spiritual quality that set him apart from his contemporaries. Among his notable paintings are Laocoon, his only surviving mythological subject, and depictions of religious scenes such as The Resurrection and The Burial of the Count of Orgaz.

Working largely outside the mainstream of his age, El Greco was long regarded as an eccentric figure. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, however, his expressive distortions and emotional power led many to view him as a forerunner of modern movements such as Expressionism, securing his reputation as a major master.