“The Holy Trinity” by El Greco

“The Holy Trinity” by El Greco is a dramatic and expressionistic depiction of Jesus Christ ascending into heaven following his journey on Earth. The Trinity is represented by God the Father, his Son Jesus and the Holy Spirit symbolized as a dove.

Six grieving angels watch over the uprising of the body, while small, cherub faces gather at his feet.

El Greco skilfully captures the weight of Christ’s body by placing the elongated Christ figure at an awkward angle. El Greco’s use of brilliant colors and the emotion imbued into the faces make this masterpiece a moving example of religious art.

This painting is one of El Greco’s first commissioned pieces in Toledo. It was created for the attic of the main altarpiece at the church of Santo Domingo el Antiguo in Toledo.

El Greco

Doménikos Theotokópoulos, widely known as El Greco, Spanish for “The Greek,” was a painter, sculptor, and architect of the Spanish Renaissance.

El Greco usually signed his paintings with his full birth name in Greek letters, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος (Doménikos Theotokópoulos), often adding the word Κρής (Krēs, “Cretan”).

He is best known for elongated figures and for marrying Byzantine traditions with those of Western painting.

El Greco was born in Crete, which at that time was part of the Republic of Venice and the center of Post-Byzantine art.

He trained and became a master Byzantine art before traveling to Venice to work; then he moved to Rome, where he opened a workshop and executed a series of works.

In 1577, he moved to Toledo, Spain, where he lived and worked until his death. In Toledo, El Greco received several major commissions and produced his best-known paintings.

El Greco’s style was met with puzzlement by his 16th-century contemporaries.

However, he found greater appreciation in modern times and is today regarded as a precursor of both Expressionism and Cubism.

His works were a source of inspiration for poets and writers, and he is considered, as an artist, so individual that he belongs to no traditional school.

The Holy Trinity

Title: The Holy Trinity
Artist: El Greco
Year: 1579
Medium: Oil on panel
Dimensions: Height: 300 cm (118.1 in). Width: 179 cm (70.5 in).
Museum: Prado Museum, Museo del Prado

El Greco

Name: El Greco – “The Greek”
Greek: Doménikos Theotokópoulos
Birth: 1541 – Heraklion, Crete
Died: 1614 (aged 73) – Toledo, Spain
Nationality: Greek
Movement: Mannerism
Notable works:
- The Holy Trinity
- Saint Jerome
- The Repentant Saint Peter
- The Tears of Saint Peter
- Saint Jerome as Scholar
- Saint Jerome Penitent
- Saint Jerome as Scholar (MET)
- View of Toledo (Met)
- The Adoration of the Shepherds
- Saint Martin and the Beggar

El Greco Paintings – Renaissance Artist – Spanish Painter

Explore the Prado Museum

“Las Meninas” or “The Ladies-in-Waiting” by Diego Velázquez
“The Triumph of Bacchus” by Diego Velázquez
“Christ Falling on the Way to Calvary” by Raphael
“The Triumph of Death” by Pieter Bruegel the Elder
“Saturn Devouring His Son” by Francisco Goya
“The Third of May 1808″ by Francisco Goya
“The Judgment of Paris” by Peter Paul Rubens
“Adam and Eve” by Peter Paul Rubens
“The Holy Trinity” by El Greco
“The Adoration of the Shepherds” by El Greco
Masterpieces of the Prado Museum
Prado Museum

El Greco: Ambition and Defiance

El Greco Facts

El Greco was a painter, sculptor, and architect.
El Greco was born in the Kingdom of Candia, current-day Crete, which was then part of the Republic of Venice.
At the age of 22, El Greco was already a Byzantine Icon Master.
An official document named him as a “master” or “maestro” of the local painter’s guild on Crete.
Despite being Greek, El Greco was a devout Catholic.
Some art historians believe he converted from Greek Orthodoxy to become part of the Catholic Cretan minority.
The two major religions of the Kingdom of Candia were Roman Catholicism and Greek Orthodoxy.
El Greco moved to Venice around 1567, at the age of 26, to complete his training.
El Greco studied with Titian in Venice, the most renowned painter of his day.
El Greco combined Byzantine traditions with Western-style.
El Greco meaning “The Greek,” was his nickname due to his Greek nationality.
In 1570 El Greco moved to Rome, and he was received at the Palazzo Farnese, which had become the center of the artistic and intellectual life of the city.
Michelangelo and Raphael had just died when El Greco moved to Rome.
His stay in Rome wasn’t successful. He acquired more enemies than friends, with his Venetian Renaissance painting style compared to Roman and Tuscan painting.
In 1577 he moved to Toledo, where he produced some of his best-known paintings and lived there until death.
While most of El Greco’s art was in the Mannerist style, he had a unique style.
El Greco’s dramatic and expressionistic style was met with puzzlement by his contemporaries, but El Greco found appreciation in the 20th century.
El Greco is today regarded as the predecessor of Expressionism and Cubism.
Famous for elongated figures.
Picasso claimed that El Greco was the only Cubist painter before him and that he drew his inspiration for inventing Cubism from El Greco.
Typically signed his paintings with his full birth name in Greek – “Domenikos Theotokopoulos.”
El Greco influenced artists like Picasso, as well as writers like Rainer Maria Rilke and Nikos Kazantzakis.