Martirio de San Mauricio

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Title

Martirio de San Mauricio

Description

Despite being born in Crete, Doménikos Theotokópoulos is perhaps the most recognizable Spanish painter from the 16th century. Known as El Greco, the artist moved from Venetian Greece to Venice itself to study sometime between the ages of 19 and 25, becoming a student of Titian. Eventually, El Greco moved to Rome, where he became acquainted with the work of previous masters such as Michelangelo and Raphael (Braham 307). During his time in Italy, El Greco became acquainted with prominent humanist intellectuals. After he relocated to Spain, El Greco became friends with numerous Spanish humanists and maintained a personal collection of works inspiring to humanists (Wethey).

A major focus of humanist painters was the beauty of the human form (Cast 416). El Greco provides a fascinating contrast between the medieval and Renaissance humanist methods of painting as he grew up as a medieval-style painter on Crete but rapidly transformed his form when he arrived in Italy to mimic the work of Renaissance icons. His approach took another turn around the time he left for Spain, which is the style El Greco is most associated with. Human figures in his paintings maintained the glorified muscular form similar to that of Michelangelo, but with a height no longer proportional to their width, resulting in tall, skinny, occasionally blurry figures that communicated a certain divinity. El Greco was a devout Catholic and believed in the importance of man as a spiritual being, something which he emphasized in his religious work.

Creator

El Greco

Source

https://www.europeana.eu/portal/en/record/2058612/object_maeyaert_19061999.html?q=el+greco+martirio+de
Braham, Allan. "Two Notes on El Greco and Michelangelo." The Burlington Magazine 108, no. 759 (1966): 307-10. http://www.jstor.org/stable/874984.
Cast, David. "HUMANISM AND ART." In Renaissance Humanism, Volume 3: Foundations, Forms, and Legacy, edited by Rabil Albert, 412-49. PHILADELPHIA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1988. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv512qm8.16.
Wethey, Harold E. "El Greco." Encyclopædia Britannica. May 30, 2018. Accessed November 16, 2018. https://www.britannica.com/biography/El-Greco.

Date

1580-1582

Contributor

Elliot Cahn

Rights

Limited Re-use

Original Format

Oil on canvas

Physical Dimensions

448 x 301 cm

Citation

El Greco, “Martirio de San Mauricio,” HIST 139 - Early Modern Europe, accessed July 21, 2025, https://earlymoderneurope.hist.sites.carleton.edu/items/show/29.

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