ABSTRACT

It was surely inevitable that a more thorough investigation of the archives of Venetian-ruled Crete would uncover new information on El Greco’s life and career in Candia. Indeed, new light was first cast on the subject by art historian Maria G. Constantoudaki, a visiting scholar at the Greek Institute of Venice, who presented her finds in a study published in 1975.1 She came across three pieces of evidence, this time more detailed and revealing than anything that had previously been found. The first, dated 26 December 1566, was a resolution of the Reggimento of Candia – that is, the Duke, his two Consiglieri, and the Capitano of Crete. The resolution granted permission to El Greco (‘maestro Domenego Theotocopulo, depentor’) to sell, by the system of lots (‘poner al lotto’), a painting with a gold background (‘quadro . . . dorato’) depicting the Passion of Christ (most probably a Crucifixion)2 once the value of the work had been established by experts, so as to determine the total value of the lots that he could sell. The valuation was carried out the following day by two painters of Candia, the priest Ioannis De Frossego (otherwise unknown to us: this is the only occasion on which he appears in the archival sources)3 and the well-known icon painter Georgios Klontzas.4 They each made a sworn statement to the effect that the painting was worth, in the view of the former, eighty ducats, and in the view of the latter, seventy. El Greco accepted the valuation of Klontzas, and eventually received payment of seventy ducats for his work.5 This information is particularly interesting. The date of the resolution indicates that seven months after the signing of the sales contract of 6 June 1566 El Greco was still in Crete. In other words, he did not depart from Crete in the summer of 1566, as Mertzios thought,6 but, as we shall see, a year later. Thus the period of El

1 M. Constantoudaki, ‘Dominicos Théotocopoulos (El Greco) de Candie à Venise. Documents inédits (1566-1568)’, Thesaurismata 12 (1975), 292-308 and ‘Ὁ Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος (El Greco) ἀπὸ τὸ Χάνδακα στὴ Βενετία. Ἀνέκδοτα ἔγγραφα (1566-1568)’, Δελτίον τῆς Χριστιανικῆς Ἀρχαιολογικῆς Ἑταιρείας, period D, vol. 8, 1975-1976, 55-71 (this is the same study as ‘Dominicos Théotocopoulos (El Greco) de Candie à Venise’ translated into Greek, with some additions). My references below will be to the latter.