The High Renaissance
 
&

Mannerism



   

 


El Greco
 
 
 

 

El Greco

(b Candia [now Herakleion], Crete, c. 1541; d Toledo, 7 April 1614).

Greek painter, designer and engraver, active in Italy and Spain. One of the most original and interesting painters of 16th-century Europe, he transformed the Byzantine style of his early paintings into another, wholly Western manner. He was active in his native Crete, in Venice and Rome, and, during the second half of his life, in Toledo. He was renowned in his lifetime for his originality and extravagance and provides one of the most curious examples of the oscillations of taste in the evaluation of a painter, and of the changes of interpretation to which an artist’s work can be submitted.

 
 


The Adoration of the Name of Jesus

1578-80
Oil and tempera on pine panel, 55,1 x 33,8 cm (excluding the painted black border)
National Gallery, London



 

 


The Adoration of the Name of Jesus
(detail)
1578-80
Oil and tempera on pine panel
National Gallery, London
 

 
 


The Adoration of the Name of Jesus
(detail)
1578-80
Oil and tempera on pine panel, detail size 29 x 24 cm
National Gallery, London



 


The Adoration of the Name of Jesus
(detail)
late 1570s
Oil and tempera on pine panel, detail size 29 x 24 cm
National Gallery, London



 


The Adoration of the Name of Jesus

1578-79
Oil on canvas, 140 x 110 cm
Chapter House, Monasterio de San Lorenzo, El Escorial



 

The Martyrdom of St Maurice

1580-81
Oil on canvas, 448 x 301 cm
Chapter House, Monasterio de San Lorenzo, El Escorial



 

The Martyrdom of St Maurice
(detail)
1580-81
Oil on canvas, detail size 125 x 103 cm
Chapter House, Monasterio de San Lorenzo, El Escorial



 

The Martyrdom of St Maurice and his Legions
(detail)
1580-81
Oil on canvas
Chapter House, Monasterio de San Lorenzo, El Escorial