(2 of 4)
The revisionist view of his career is perhaps less radical than earlier ones. Here was a provincial man, born Domenikos Theotokopoulos in 1541 in Crete, who by the age of 27 had attained a modest success as an icon painter in the Byzantine manner. He then set out for Venice to expand his painting skills. After only two years, when he had absorbed all the schooling in color that Titian and Tintoretto could give him, he moved on to Rome, where he became part of the circle of intellectuals who revolved around Fulvio Orsini, librarian to Cardinal Alessandro Farnese. During the next seven years, he prayerfully studied the mannerist distortion of the human figure instigated by Michelangelo. Then for reasons still unknown, El Greco decided to try his luck in Spain, where a friend's father was able to get him commissions for Toledo's chapels.
In Orsini's circle, he had met, talked and argued with philosophers, architects and theologians. He had been treated like a man of ideas, as in fact he was. In Spain, he found artists were rated not much above artisans, paid by the square foot. He would neither tolerate nor accept it. An intellectual artist, he demanded to be treated as such. He also rebelliously demanded to be paid as such (that is to say, more), and for all his life in Toledo he was constantly in litigation over the price of his paintings.
Religiously, however, he was no rebel. Spain in general—and Toledo in particular—was in the throes of the Counter Reformation, and El Greco never wavered in his support of conventional Catholic doctrine. It is true that he lost the support of cathedral officials because his version of the Disrobing of Christ included the three Marys in the lower left corner (conservatives argue that they are not mentioned in the text of the Gospel). He also lost the hoped-for patronage of King Philip II, who disliked the fact that the artist's version of the Martyrdom of St. Maurice featured Maurice and his captains in the foreground rather languidly deciding to accept decapitation, while the actual decapitation of their troops was depicted in the background. Thus El Greco managed to exclude himself from two major sources of patronage in Spain, the church and the King.
But fortunately for the artist, there were lesser prelates, rich merchants and prosperous scholars who became his patrons. He got commissions for altarpieces in funerary chapels and seminary churches, and for portraits of rich patrons. By 1585 he had signed a lease for a 24-room apartment in the palace of the Marqués de Villena and had established a flourishing business. At times, things were so good that he employed a whole workshop of subsidiary artisans who turned out frames and smaller duplicates of his larger works. He even had an orchestra play for his dining. At other times, he fell two years behind in his rent while disputing a suit for payment on some commission.