El Greco

Doménikos Theotokópoulos, universally known as El Greco ('The Greek'), was a master of the Spanish Renaissance whose radical style defied all contemporary schools. Trained as an icon painter in Byzantine Crete, he absorbed Venetian colorism under Titian and Roman Mannerism before settling permanently in Toledo, Spain, in 1577.

El Greco rejected empirical naturalism, favoring elongated ghost-like figures, shimmering acid pigments, agitated skies, and ecstatic spiritual transcendence. Masterpieces such as The Burial of the Count of Orgaz (1586) and View of Toledo baffled contemporary critics but were championed in the 20th century as direct precursors of Cubism and Expressionism.