“In 16th-century Italy, art was an instrument of faith and Michelangelo its divine master, unassailable until El Greco appeared on the scene. But was he a puritan on a mission to clean up wicked Rome, or simply an arrogant young artist?” Where Michelangelo had begun to stray into vaguely secular realms, (exemplified by his masterpiece, The Last Judgment, based on the themes of Dante,) El Greco represented a calculated and forceful return to faith-based art which strove to keep the public servile to its Christian masters, rather than to encourage independent thought on Christian themes. Today, few would doubt that “El Greco is a great artist – but what kind of a great artist?”