El Greco Born on Crete

1541

On the Venetian-ruled island of Crete, a boy named Domenikos Theotokopoulos was born into a family of Greek merchants. He would train as an icon painter, travel to Venice and Rome, and finally settle in Toledo, where his elongated saints and acid skies would make him Europe's strangest artist. His Byzantine icon-painting training combined with Venetian colorism and Roman Mannerism produced a style defying classification for centuries.