Of El Greco, Hortensio Félix Paravicino, a seventeenth-century Spanish preacher and poet, said: "Crete gave him life and the painter's craft, Toledo a better homeland, where through Death he began to achieve eternal life." According to author Liisa Berg, Paravacino revealed in a few words two main factors that define when a great artist gains the appraisal he deserves: no one is a prophet in his homeland and often it is in retrospect that one's work gains its true appreciation and value.