Editing El Greco (section)

===Early years and family===
[[Image:Dormition El Greco.jpg|thumb|''[[Dormition of the Virgin (El Greco)|The Dormition of the Virgin]]'' (before 1567, [[tempera]] and gold on panel, {{nowrap|61.4 × 45 cm}}, Holy Cathedral of the Dormition of the Virgin, [[Hermoupolis]], [[Syros]]) was probably created near the end of the artist's Cretan period. The painting combines post-Byzantine and Italian mannerist stylistic and iconographic elements.]]
Born in 1541, in either the village of [[Fodele]] or Candia (the Venetian name of Chandax, present day [[Heraklion]]) on [[Crete]],{{efn|There is an ongoing dispute about El Greco's birthplace. Most researchers and scholars give Candia as his birthplace.<ref name="PlTazSch">M. Lambraki-Plaka, ''El Greco{{snd}}The Greek'', 40–41<br />* M. Scholz-Hansel, ''El Greco'', 7<br />* M. Tazartes, ''El Greco'', 23</ref> Nonetheless, according to Achileus A. Kyrou, a prominent Greek journalist of the 20th century, El Greco was born in Fodele and the ruins of his family's house are still extant in the place where old Fodele was (the village later changed location because of pirate raids).<ref name="Helios" /> Candia's claim to him is based on two documents from a trial in 1606, when the painter was 65. Fodele natives argue that El Greco probably told everyone in Spain he was from Heraklion because it was the closest known city next to tiny Fodele.<ref>J. Kakissis, [http://www.boston.com/travel/articles/2005/03/06/the_root_of_the_matter__el_greco/ A Cretan Village that was the Painter's Birthplace]</ref>}} El Greco was descended from a prosperous urban family, which had probably been driven out of [[Chania]] to Candia after an uprising against the Catholic [[Republic of Venice|Venetians]] between 1526 and 1528.<ref name="Plaka41">M. Lambraki-Plaka, ''El Greco – The Greek'', 40–41</ref> El Greco's father, Geṓrgios Theotokópoulos ({{lang|el|Γεώργιος Θεοτοκόπουλος}}; {{abbreviation|d.|died}} 1556), was a merchant and [[tax collector]]. Almost nothing is known about his mother or his first wife, except that they were also [[Greeks|Greek]].<ref name="Scholz7">M. Scholz-Hansel, ''El Greco'', 7<br />* M. Tazartes, ''El Greco'', 23</ref> His second wife was a Spaniard.<ref name="SHelcholz7" /> El Greco's older brother, Manoússos Theotokópoulos (1531–1604), was a wealthy merchant and spent the last years of his life (1603–1604) in El Greco's Toledo home.<ref name="SHelcholz7">M. Scholz-Hansel, ''El Greco'', 7<br />*{{cite encyclopedia|title=Theotocópoulos, Doménicos|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia The Helios|year=1952}}</ref>

El Greco received his initial training as an [[icon]] painter of the Cretan school, a leading center of post-[[Byzantine art]]. In addition to painting, he probably studied the [[classics]] of [[ancient Greece]], and perhaps the Latin classics also; he left a "working library" of 130 volumes at his death, including the Bible in Greek and an annotated [[Vasari]] book.<ref>Richard Kagan in, J. Brown, ''El Greco of Toledo'', 45</ref> Candia was a center for artistic activity where Eastern and Western cultures co-existed harmoniously, where around two hundred painters were active during the 16th century, and had organized a [[painters' guild]], based on the Italian model.<ref name="Plaka41" /> In 1563, at the age of twenty-two, El Greco was described in a document as a "master" ("maestro Domenigo"), meaning he was already a master of the guild and presumably operating his own workshop.<ref>J. Brown, ''El Greco of Toledo'', 75</ref> Three years later, in June 1566, as a witness to a contract, he signed his name in [[Greek language|Greek]] as {{lang|el|μαΐστρος Μένεγος Θεοτοκόπουλος σγουράφος}} ({{lang|el-Latn|maḯstros Ménegos Theotokópoulos sgouráfos}}; "Master Ménegos Theotokópoulos, painter").{{efn|1=This document comes from the notarial archives of Candia and was published in 1962.<ref name="Mertzios297-308">K.D. Mertzios, ''Selections'', 29</ref> {{lang|vec|Ménego}} is the Venetian form of {{lang|el-Latn|Domḗnikos}}, and {{lang|el-Latn|sgouráfos}} is a Greek term for painter, a corruption of {{lang|el-Latn|zōgráfos}} ({{lang|el|ζωγράφος}}).<ref name="Cormack"/>}}

Most scholars believe that the Theotokópoulos "family was almost certainly [[Greek Orthodox]]",<ref>X. Bray, ''El Greco'', 8<br />* M. Lambraki-Plaka, ''El Greco – The Greek'', 40–41</ref> although some Catholic sources still claim him from birth.{{efn|The arguments of these Catholic sources are based on the lack of Orthodox archival [[baptism]]al records on Crete and on a relaxed interchange between Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic rites during El Greco's youth.<ref name="Hammerman">{{cite web|author=N. Hamerman|url=http://www.catholicherald.com/stories/bEl-Greco-Paintings-Lead-Toward-City-of-Godb,2888|title=El Greco Paintings Lead Toward "City of God"|work=catholicherald.com|date=12 April 2003|access-date=20 August 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110926223909/http://www.catholicherald.com/stories/bEl-Greco-Paintings-Lead-Toward-City-of-Godb%2C2888|archive-date=26 September 2011}}</ref> Based on the assessment that his art reflects the religious spirit of [[Habsburg Spain|Roman Catholic Spain]], and on a reference in his last will and testament, where he described himself as a "devout Catholic", some scholars assume that El Greco was part of the vibrant Catholic Cretan minority or that he converted from Greek Orthodoxy to Roman Catholicism before leaving the island.<ref name="McGarrRom">S. McGarr, [http://www.tuppenceworth.ie/ArtsEnt/elgreco-st-francis-receiving-the-stigmata.htm St Francis Receiving The Stigmata]  {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070207103000/http://www.tuppenceworth.ie/ArtsEnt/elgreco-st-francis-receiving-the-stigmata.htm |date=7 February 2007 }},<br />* J. Romaine, [http://oldarchive.godspy.com/culture/El-Grecos-Mystical-Vision.cfm.html El Greco's Mystical Vision] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928100523/http://oldarchive.godspy.com/culture/El-Grecos-Mystical-Vision.cfm.html |date=28 September 2011 }}<br />* J. Sethre, ''The Souls of Venice'', 91</ref>}} Like many [[Byzantine scholars in the Renaissance|Orthodox emigrants]] to Catholic areas of Europe, some assert that he may have transferred to Catholicism after his arrival, and possibly practiced as a Catholic in Spain, where he described himself as a "devout Catholic" in his will. The extensive archival research conducted since the early 1960s by scholars, such as Nikolaos Panayotakis, [[Pandelis Prevelakis]] and Maria Constantoudaki, indicates strongly that El Greco's family and ancestors were Greek Orthodox. One of his uncles was an Orthodox priest, and his name is not mentioned in the Catholic archival baptismal records on Crete.<ref name="Katimertzi">P. Katimertzi, [https://web.archive.org/web/20051127194214/http://ta-nea.dolnet.gr/print_article.php?e=A&f=16585&m=R26&aa=1 El Greco and Cubism]</ref> Prevelakis goes even further, expressing his doubt that El Greco was ever a practicing Roman Catholic.<ref name="Wethey125-127">H.E. Wethey, ''Letters to the Editor'', 125–127</ref>

Important for his early biography, El Greco, still in Crete, painted his ''Dormition of the Virgin'' near the end of his Cretan period, probably before 1567. Three other signed works of "Domḗnicos" are attributed to El Greco (''[[Modena Triptych]]'', ''St. Luke Painting the Virgin and Child'', and ''[[The Adoration of the Magi]]'').<ref name="Alberge_1">D. Alberge, [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-2326011,00.html Collector Is Vindicated as Icon is Hailed as El Greco]{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>