Cretan-born painter Domenicos Theotocopoulos, better known by his Spanish nickname, El Greco (c.1545-1614), studied under Titian in Venice before settling down in Toledo. Commissioned by the church and local nobility, El Greco produced dramatic paintings marked by distorted figures and vibrant color contrasted with subtle grays. Though his work was appreciated by his contemporaries, especially intellectuals, it wasn’t until the 20th century that it was widely embraced and admired, influencing in particular the Expressionist movement.

El Greco is probably the best-known foreign artist of his period, yet we know much less about him than about many lesser Italian artists of the post-Renais-sance era. This is due primarily to three reasons: first, the long artistic "pilgrim-age" he made through the Mediterranean region before he found a new home in Toledo, Spain, in 1577. Second, the relatively late emergence of art literaturein Spain by comparison to Italy. The major Spanish writers on art did not begin publishing until the 17th century. And third and finally, the lack- before Goya -of a Spanish school of engraving, which might have reproduced El Greco"s workas prints.

From Icon Painter to "Disciple of Titian"

In Search of Work in Rome and Spain

Under the Sway of Michelangelo

Censorship and Inquisition

Toledo, the Artists New Home

The Greek Heritage in the Conflict of Confessions

Posthumous Fame in Spain

The first "Homeless Man of Art" and the Avant-Garde

Chronology