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,
Charles Leslie (painter) Williams, whom he lived with in 1856 and 1857 at 32 Castelnau Villas in Barnes at a time when Leslie was already exhibiting works at the Royal Academy. Leslie is not to be confused with the much better-known painter Charles Robert Leslie, RA, the father of George Dunlop Leslie, RA. The lesser-known Charles Leslie was one of the first Victorian landscape artists to portray scenes of the Scottish and Welsh moorlands, and became one of the better-known painters of these themes. His landscapes often feature stark mountains in the background towering over still waters with open skies above. Leslie exhibited