Mandsportræt

c. 1567 – 1570

Venice: a “disciple” of Titian

El Greco lived in Venice until 1570 and, according to a letter from his friend the miniaturist Giulio Clovio, was a “disciple” of Titian, who was by then over eighty but still vigorous. This may mean he worked in Titian's studio, or not; Clovio called him “a rare talent in painting”.

1570

Moving to Rome and the Palazzo Farnese

In 1570 El Greco moved to Rome; on Giulio Clovio's recommendation he was received as a guest at the Palazzo Farnese, which Cardinal Alessandro Farnese had made a centre of the city's artistic and intellectual life. There he met the Roman intellectual elite, including the scholar Fulvio Orsini, whose collection would later include seven paintings by him.

1570s

The quarrel with Michelangelo in Rome

El Greco singled out Correggio and Parmigianino for praise but did not hesitate to dismiss Michelangelo's Last Judgment, offering Pope Pius V to paint over the whole fresco in accord with the new and stricter Catholic thinking; later he said Michelangelo was a good man who did not know how to paint. In The Purification of the Temple he painted portraits of Michelangelo, Titian, Clovio and presumably Raphael, advancing a claim to rival them.

late 1572

His own workshop in Rome

At the end of 1572 El Greco opened his own workshop in Rome and hired the painters Lattanzio Bonastri de Lucignano and Francisco Preboste as assistants.

1577

Moving to Spain: Madrid and Toledo

In 1577 El Greco moved to Madrid and then to Toledo, then the religious capital of Spain. Philip II, with the Escorial still under construction, had difficulty finding good artists: Titian was dead, and Tintoretto, Veronese and Anthonis Mor all refused to come to Spain.

by July 1577

Contracts for Santo Domingo el Antiguo and “El Espolio”

He had arrived in Toledo by July 1577 and signed contracts for a group of paintings for the church of Santo Domingo el Antiguo and for El Espolio.