Book excerpt: This fundamental contribution to El Greco scholarship, until now only available in Greek, provides a thoroughly substantiated assessment of the evidence regarding the formative years in the life of one of the greatest artists of all time. Dealing with his birthplace, family, name, religious affiliation, and apprenticeship as a painter, Nikolaos Panagiotakes concludes that El Greco was already an established professional 'master painter' by the time he left Crete for Italy in 1567 at the age of twenty-six.