The Greek representative just by looking at his name! What is his story in his name ‘El Greco’?

El Greco [Photo provided = Wikipedia]

▼ Copyright : The legal right of the owner of intellectual property.

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All works of art have the right to protect against imitation and abusement without the permission of others namely copyrights. On the other hand there is an expiration period for copyright until 70 years after the writers death. From then it is possible to share the works left by the writers. Which is so-called as “COPYLEFT”. In the series article we will take time to look over the expired copyright artists who left enormous masterpiece when they were alive and returned as a picture for the peoples.

Name : Domenikos Theotokopoulos (Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος)

Birth : 1541

Death : April 7th 1614

Nationality : Greece

Art Movement : Mannerism

Major work : ‘Dormition of the Virgin’ ‘The Disrobing of Christ’ ‘Christ Driving the Money Changers from the Temple’

One time I had been called ‘Seoul dude’ when I was in the military. Just because most of the people are from other regions and I was the only one from Seoul. It is not right but we tend to call people by their region or origins. It was the same in past Europe. In today’s we are going to take a look El Greco’s name and his artworks.

El Greco’s real name is Domenikos Theotokopoulos. How did he end up being well known by the name ‘El Greco’? El Greco is a compound word of Spanish definite article ‘El’ and ‘Greco’ which means ‘The Greek’ in Italian. His name contains 3 nations in its meaning and words.

Since he was born and learned his basic art in Greece and practiced in Italy then he started his career in Spain in earnest so his name contains these strains of 3 nations. Of course it could be a positive reason because of being affective in Greece Italy and Spain but on the other hand in my thought I think his real Greek name Domenikos Theotokopoulos (Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος) was just too long and difficult to read.

So Greek and Italian people just called a guy from Greece whose name is Domenikos by ‘Greek guy’. Of course He was not called ‘El Greco’ at the first place. It took a lot of process to be called his name and paintings from people.

He was born in Crete Greece in 1541. His childhood records barely have been founded. Since his signature had been founded his painting ‘Dormition of the Virgin’ which is assumed that he might have completed before 1567 enable us to tell what kind of artist he was. His early artworks are mostly about ‘Byzantine Icon art’ appearing in the Greek Orthodox art.

‘Icon’ refers to a religious symbol drawn by the Greek Orthodox Church and originally it came from ‘εικόν’ which means ‘Painting’ and ‘Sacred image’ in Medieval Greek. According to the Bible it says “God is a transcendental being that cannot be seen so do not make statue and worship.”

However in a period of the New Testament times which means the age that Jesus Christ came to redeem men finally people can configurate appearance of God as humane being Jesus Christ. Therefore the story of the Old Testament can claim that it was provisional until Jesus Christ appeared in the New Testament. This kind of mind was expressed as Icon paintings which is a figure of Jesus Christ in the Greek Orthodox Church.

Mostly in Icon paintings it is a rule that not to use natural colors that express realistic space and texture and not to express the figures’ volume and characters distinctly. When we look at ‘Dormition of the Virgin’ by El Greco it shows that he could master the Icon style paintings naturally under the influence of the Greek Orthodox as a Greek.

All of sudden in 1567 he left Greece for Venice Italy. It looks like crossing the border but since Crete was under the control of Republic of Venice so it is right to say he moved in the same country. He was taught by a famous painter in Venice ‘Tiziano Vecellio’ and influenced by Tintoretto and Veronese’s artworks. He lived there for 3 years and moved to Rome.

He underwent trial and error in Rome. 2 years after he moved to Rome he registered in a guild for painters with his name ‘Dominico Greco’ there were so many negative factors such as picking sides and lining up due to fierce competition. It was hard to be chosen as a Greek painter even among Italian painters were hard to be picked. Thankfully he was recommended as ‘Tiziano’s student’ and stayed at Cardinal Alessandro Farnese’s palace but as you can see in his painting ‘Christ Driving the Money Changers from the Temple’ his artworks in Rome at this period was confusing with unclear space incorrect drawing and chaotic sacred image.

In 1561 he became a court painter for Felipe II in Spain but he quitted it since his abnormal longish and twisted description of body drawing style did not suit the king’s taste. After he became 36 years old in 1577 he moved to Toledo where it was comfortable for Greek El Greco since the people from various Europe countries had been dwelling.

His first drawing in Toledo was ‘The Disrobing of Christ’. The painting which was ordered by the archpriest in Toledo Catedral represents the scene of soldiers trying to undress Jesus just before running on the cross. First there was a precedent in Byzantine art it was not a common topic in Western Europe. Furthermore not like his Icon painting he had been working on it was the most naturalistic painting and the color and character became clear. At the same time gathering the events that occurred sequentially in one scene and unclear description of space are the features of mannerism painting.

In addition Jesus Christ’s facial expression looking into the sky with tears in his eyes appeared often in his other artworks since his first drawing. Of course this painting did not catch the church’s fancy. Because the crowds’ heads were higher than Jesus and too many of unrelated people appeared. However later on this painting was evaluated as his own fantastic drawing style made of long practice and confusion through Greece and Italy that could be founded nowhere.

Even after he drew the unusual artworks of his time. His fifth artwork ‘The Fifth Seal of the Apocalypse’ assumed that he might have completed in 1608 his drawing style such as emphasizing the figures by using dark solid colors and longish description of body was not familiar at that time and shunned by the public but it received attention by future generation.

In the late 16th century in between the Renaissance and Baroque the drawing style like this was developed as a trend of art ‘Mannerism’ referring to drooped figures exaggerated and unbalanced poses manipulated irrational space unnatural lights and artificial beauty and it contains most of his drawing styles.

As we can learn European Classic from Greek mythology we can experience Greek art from his artworks. Greek artist to the bone ‘El Greco’. Would not his name remain as a word representing Greece and Greek art?

Map of Spain Italy and Greece [Photo provided = Google Maps]

‘Dormition of the Virgin’ by El Greco [Photo provided = Wikipedia]

‘Christ’ in the Hagia Sophia [Photo provided = Wikipedia]

‘Christ Driving the Money Changers from the Temple’ by El Greco [Photo provided = Wikipedia]

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