EL GRECO
El Greco or Dominikos Theotokopoulos was born in 1541 in Heraklion, Crete. He studied Byzantine art and became familiar with Western arts. Πήγε στην Ιταλία γύρω στο 1567. There, in order to be able to work and at the same time avoid persecution by the Inquisition, he changed from Orthodox to Roman Catholic.
Having produced many paintings of important figures of the time, he left for Spain in 1577, hoping to work in the newly built royal monastery and palace of El Escorial.
Although he failed to complete his wish, El Greco quickly became famous in Spain and began to create again. In the following years he received many commissions from both church bodies and private individuals to create a collection of paintings.
He died in Toledo in 1614. Some of his masterpieces are “The Stripping of Christ” (1577-1579), “The Burial of Count Orgaz” (1586), a portrait of “St. Louis” (1587-1597), “The Baptism of Christ” (1596-1600), “Agony in the Garden” (1597-1603), “The Adoration of the Shepherds” (1612-1614), and various representations of Toledo’s landscapes.
