Domenikos Theotokopoulos, globally known as El Greco (the Greek), was an outstanding but long-forgotten 16th-century painter. He died in Toledo in 1614, with most of his artistic legacy, so clearly celebrated in his lifetime, being quickly forgotten over the next century. A variety of historical factors, from the dissolution of the Counter-Reformation network to the shift to naturalism and drama in painting, contributed to the painter’s oblivion. However, the early 20th century offered a vital turning point for El Greco’s legacy, with modern artists rediscovering him and bringing his genius back to the spotlight.

Why Did El Greco Fall into Oblivion?

El Greco had a unique visual language, with elongated human figures and unusual color schemes. Antonio Palomino, an art theorist who studied the painter’s art a century after his death, explained these irregularities with El Greco’s madness, laying the basis for the astigmatism hypothesis. Though the theory was largely ungrounded, wrong, and reductive, it survived scrutiny and attributed El Greco’s uniqueness to a defect, contributing to the gradual dismissal of his artistic contribution.

Rediscovery of El Greco’s Legacy

One of the first modern artists to revisit El Greco’s artistic legacy was Paul Cezanne, who was suddenly attracted by the painter’s work in the Louvre. The painting resonated with Cezanne’s developing artistic vision, and the overall philosophy coincided with the revolutionary spirit of modernism. El Greco’s elongated figures and ecstatic skies were in perfect assonance with what Cezanne and fellow artists were trying to reinvent.

Cezanne’s attention triggered a quick, audacious process of El Greco’s rehabilitation in the artistic community, with lots of research and analysis produced by renowned critics of the early 20th century. His works produced a profound impact on Pablo Picasso and are also legendarily associated with the birth of Cubism. Large-scale religious compositions with compressed picture planes, interweaving of figures in small spaces, and El Greco’s radical refusal of scale and proportion inspired Picasso’s unique visual method. Though the artist never acknowledged that influence publicly, his works hold the traces of El Greco’s unique innovations.

While Cubists were reluctant to pay tribute to El Greco’s influence on their movement, Expressionists have always been more explicit about it. Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marz, and their fellow painters recognized Domenikos Theotokopoulos as their spiritual ancestor and celebrated his unique spatial geometry and emotional cues. El Greco’s distorted appearances with a high degree of spiritual expressivity are also traceable in the work of van Gogh. This way, the legacy of the 16th-century master remains alive in many generations of artists and movements.