Focus on View of Toledo and explain the Style.
El Greco has a unique style with influences from Italian artists as well as Spanish and Greek. Throughout his painting career, El Greco changed his style based upon the places he lived. However, he almost always painted with influence from his Cretan or Greek roots. He often wrote in Greek and used the Greek alphabet instead of the Latin alphabet. View of Toledo carries this tradition of his Greek roots through his signature. He always signed his art with his real name, Domenikos Theotokopoulos. El Greco's signature appears in the lower-right corner. El Greco's style was known to be more uneven. That uneven detail that is normally found in his art is in his line work and in the physical location of Toledo in the painting. While influenced by the Mannerist style, El Greco's expressive handling of color and form is without parallel in the history of art. The Welsh art historian David Davies asserts that the philosophies of Platonism and ancient Neo-Platonism, the works of Plotinus and Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, the texts of the Church fathers and the liturgy offer the keys to the understanding of El Greco's style. Summarizing the ensuing scholarly debate on this issue, José Álvarez Lopera, curator at the Museo del Prado, Madrid, concludes that the presence of "Byzantine memories" is obvious in El Greco's mature works, though there are still some obscure issues concerning his Byzantine origins needing further illumination.
Neo-Platonism El Greco Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite Spanish Mannerist Plotinus Museo del Prado Toledo Platonism