地中海のクレタ島に生まれ、本名はドメニコス・テオトコプーロスです。はじめはイコン（聖像画）の画家でしたが、ヴェネツィアとローマで学び、30代でスペインのトレドに移りました。縦に長くのびた人物と、ゆらめくような光と色で、ほかの誰にも似ていない宗教画を描きました。代表作はトレドの教会にある「オルガス伯爵の埋葬」です。
El Greco was born on the island of Crete. His real name was Doménikos Theotokópoulos. He started as a painter of icons, then studied in Venice and Rome. In his thirties, he moved to Toledo in Spain. With long, stretched figures and flickering light and color, he painted religious pictures unlike anyone else's. His masterpiece, The Burial of the Count of Orgaz, is in a church in Toledo.
