View of Toledo by El Greco

El Greco (1541 – 1614, Greek)

The name “El Greco” means “The Greek” in Spanish; his real name was Doménikos Theotokópoulos. Greek by birth, he lived most of his life in Spain, where he was a major painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. El Greco enriched his style with elements of Mannerism and of the Venetian Renaissance taken from a number of great artists of the time, notably Tintoretto.  El Greco’s dramatic and expressionistic style was met with puzzlement by his contemporaries but found appreciation in our time.