History of Crete Venice, overthrew official Venetian authorities and declared an independent Cretan Republic. The revolt took Venice five years to quell. During Venetian rule, the Greek population of Crete was exposed to Renaissance culture. A thriving literature in the Cretan dialect of Greek developed on the island. The best-known work from this period is the poem "Erotokritos" by Vitsentzos Kornaros (Βιτσένζος Κορνάρος). Another major Cretan literary figure was Nicholas Kalliakis (1645–1707), a Greek scholar and philosopher who flourished in Italy in the 17th Century. Georgios Hortatzis was author of the dramatic work "Erophile". The painter Domenicos Theotocopoulos, better known as El Greco,
Claude François (painter) Claude François (painter) Claude François (1614 - 17 May 1685) was a French painter and Recollect Franciscan friar. He is better known as Frère Luc ("Brother Luke"), the name he adopted after becoming a monk He was born in Amiens and studied drawing and the initial principals of art there, before moving to Paris to complete his training under Simon Vouet, whose style he closely copied throughout his life. From there he went to Rome to copy the old masters there. It was also there that he painted an "Assumption of the Virgin" as a high altarpiece for the Jacobin