Annunciation by El Greco

The Annunciation by El Greco, c. 1600, is an oil on canvas painting of the Virgin Mary visited by the angel Gabriel to tell her that she is with child, as told in the Gospels. El Greco's energetic, aggressively expressionist composition of flattened form and color creates an image of religious fervor. A brilliant white dove flies towards the view at the center of the composition, a symbol of the Holy Spirit. El Greco created some of the most memorable religious images in Western art. Domenikos Theotokópoulos (1541 - 1614) was born on the island of Crete where he apprenticed as a painter of religious icons in the Byzantine tradition. As a young man he studied in Venice under Titian and the painters of the Venetian Renaissance and became known by the moniker El Greco, "The Greek". El Greco permanently settled in Toledo, Spain, where he produced most of his famous paintings and worked also as a sculptor and architect. El Greco's unique manner defies classification, incorporating elements of the Italian and Spanish Renaissance, Byzantine art, Mannerism, and Expressionism. El Greco remained somewhat obscure until the 19th and 20th centuries, when his paintings profoundly influenced the rising modern artists.