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Albert F. Calvert, and Catherine Gasquoine-Hartley, in THE SPANISH SERIES - El Greco; an account of his life and works; publisher, London: J. Lane; New York: J. Lane Co, 1909, p. 17
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Our painter's very name [El Greco] is uncertain. To his contemporaries he was known as the Greco, the difficult Theotocopuli, barbarous to the Spaniards, being disregarded; and up to the end of the eighteenth century no one writes of him except as Dominico Greco. Pacheco, Palomino, Giuseppe Martinez and other native writers, who mention his work, use this name. It is also the name found in the Inventories of the palace, the registers of Toledo, and the indices of public writings.

— Albert F. Calvert

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Our painter's very name [El Greco] is uncertain. To his contemporaries he was known as the Greco, the difficult Theotocopuli, barbarous to the Spaniards, being disregarded; and up to the end of the eighteenth century no one writes of him except as Dominico Greco. Pacheco, Palomino, Giuseppe Martinez and other native writers, who mention his work, use this name. It is also the name found in the Inventories of the palace, the registers of Toledo, and the indices of public writings." in the context of "Albert F. Calvert, and Catherine Gasquoine-Hartley, in THE SPANISH SERIES - El Greco; an account of his life and works; publisher, London: J. Lane; New York: J. Lane Co, 1909, p. 17" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "El Greco" (Quotes about El Greco: sorted chronologically, by date of the quotes about El Greco, 1900 - 2000) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app

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#El Greco#greco#name#contemporaries#theotocopuli#disregarded#inventories#eighteenth#uncertain#difficult#barbarous#spaniards
El Greco

About El Greco

Doménikos Theotokópoulos (Greek language: Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος, 1541–7 April 1614), most widely known as El Greco (Spanish language for "The Greek"), was a painter, sculptor, and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. The nickname "El Greco" refers both to his Greek origin and Spanish citizenship. The artist normally signed his paintings with his full birth name in Greek alphabet: Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος (Doménikos Theotokópoulos), often adding the word Κρής (Krēs, "Cretan"). El Greco is regarded as a precursor of both Expressionism and Cubism.