El Greco (1541-1614)
San Mateo (St. Matthew)
c.1610–1614
Oil on canvas,28-1/4 x 21-5/8 in.
Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis
Domenikos Theotokopolous, known as El Greco (the Greek), was a native of the island of Crete. He was trained there as a painter of icons, before going to Venice (by 1568) and reinventing himself as a Renaissance painter under the influence of Titian and Tintoretto. After nearly a decade in Italy, El Greco established himself in the Spanish city of Toledo and radically transformed his art yet again.
Crete gave him life, and Toledo his brushes . . . -Fray Hortensio Félix Paravicino, Obras posthumas divinas y humanas, 1641. (IMA)