Christ Driving the Money Changers from the Temple (1571)

El Greco came back to this scene again and again over his life, Christ swinging a whip to drive the traders and money changers out of the Temple. This is one of his earliest attempts, painted around 1570 or 1571, when he was a young man from Crete, newly arrived in Italy and soaking up Venice. You can read it in the crowded, colourful bodies and the grand architecture opening up behind them, the lessons of Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese, the painters then ruling the city. The elongated figures and nervous energy of his famous late Spanish work are barely stirring yet. He signed it in Greek letters, the way he always did, keeping the name of the island he came from long after he had left it behind.