El Greco - A 16th century Maverick

El Greco, Disrobing of Christ (El Espolio), 1577-79
(Cathedral of Toledo, Sacristy)

El Greco, the quintessential painter of the Spanish Reformation is one of the most remarkable figures in the history of art.  What makes El Greco so interesting is his success at a time and place where religious imagery was strictly regulated to conform to the edicts of the Counter-Reformation and the erudite style of his imagery that defies classification.   Born Domenikos Theotokopoulous in Crete, a colony of the Republic of Venice, in 1541, El Greco started his artistic life as a Byzantine icon painter, before moving to Venice  to study the works of Titian and Tinteretto. Three years later, he moved to Rome where he tried to further his education and exposure but at his lack of success in securing any altarpiece commissions, he decided to move to Toledo, Spain where he stayed till the end of his life. All the different styles he was exposed to seems to have been subsumed in El Greco's paintings, the early post-Byzantine training, the narrative compositional structure, painterly brushwork and the use of oil glazes he learned in Venice and exposure to the High Renaissance works of Michelangelo and Raphael as well as contemporary Mannerist art in Rome.