Greek-born Spanish Mannerist Painter, 1541-1614 Considered a representative of late Renaissance Spanish art, El Greco was actually born in Greece, on the island of Crete. After studying in Venice under Titian, El Greco settled in Toledo, Spain in 1577. At the time he was wildly popular, his emotionally religious paintings being just the ticket for the hometown of the Spanish Inquisition. After his death his work was largely ignored until the beginning of the 20th century; now he considered one of the inspired geniuses of Western art. His distinctive style features bold shapes and colors, with elongated and slightly distorted figures. In Toledo El Greco was in constant demand and liked living large: he maintained a private orchestra to accompany his meals.  Related Paintings of El Greco :. | The Purification of the Temple | A View of Toledo | burial of count orgaz | Ausgiebung des Hl. Geistes | An Elderly Gentleman |
Related Artists:
VIVIEN, Joseph
French painter (b. 1657, Lyon, d. 1734, Bonn) French painter and pastellist, active in Germany. He trained in Paris in 1672 with the painter Fran?ois Bonnemers (1638-89), also attending the Acad?mie Royale, where his oil painting the Punishment of Adam and Eve (untraced) won a second prize in 1678. Only in 1698 was he received (re?u) at the Acad?mie, as a pastellist, on presentation of portraits of the sculptor Fran?ois Girardon and of the architect Robert de Cotte (both Paris, Louvre; see PASTEL, fig. 1). Having been commissioned to execute a pastel Self-portrait (Florence, Uffizi) by Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria, in 1699, the following year he was appointed the Elector's principal court painter (see WITTELSBACH). He henceforth divided his time between Paris, the Elector's courts at Brussels and Munich,
Henry Courtnay Selous
(1803-1890), Painter and lithographer
Franz Niklaus Konig
b Berne, 6 April 1765; d Berne, 27 March 1832