1570-1577
In 1570, he was in Rome, where, like other renowned painters, he faced the intense competition prevalent at the time, while the influence of Titian was dominant and the work of Michelangelo continued to exert influence six years after his death. El Greco's relationship with Michelangelo's work remains controversial, but the influence on him is considered certain.
At the Palazzo Farnese, he met the humanist librarian of the Farnese, Fulvio Orsini, who was a supporter of El Greco, and later, seven of El Greco's works were found in his collection. In 1572, he was dismissed from the Palazzo Farnese, as evidenced by a letter from Theotokopoulos dated July 6, 1572, in which he protests his unjust expulsion from the palace. On September 18 of the same year, he applied to become a member of the painters' guild of Saint Luke under the name Domenico Greco, evidently deciding to pursue a career as an independent and autonomous artist. Overall, the paintings he created in Italy followed the Renaissance standards of the 16th century in Venice, particularly in terms of light rendering or emphasis on color, moving away from the Byzantine idiom and adopting a different technique and elements of Mannerism.
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