El Greco, called "The Greek" because he was living in Spain, learned painting on the island of Crete where he was born. Yet art historians have neglected El Greco's training, as well as the wealth of Italian paintings to be found on the island for him to study. Based on his exhaustive research into the archives on Crete, Panagiotakes bridges this gap through extensive writings that give a full picture of El Greco's life, artistic training, and works of art in both Latin and Greek Orthodox contexts that were available for him to study on Crete. John C. Davis has done a great service in translating Panagiotakes' writings into English. The volume includes color plates of some of the works discussed and a bibliography of works cited. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)