English: El Greco may have painted the work to win favour with King Philip II of Spain, but he never seems to have achieved that aim. The subject is based on a text in the gospel of St Paul, but it can also be read as an allegory of the victory of the Holy League over the Ottoman fleet at Lepanto in 1571. The figure dressed in black in the foreground is identifiable as King Philip; the man in the yellow robe as a doge of Venice; the old man opposite him as the pope; and the figure on the left as Don John of Austria, the commander of the Christian fleet at the battle. In the heavens is a monogram formed from IHS–the first three letters of the name Jesus in Greek, also In Hoc Signo and Jesus Hominum Salvator. A larger version of the painting, a votive altarpiece called The Dream of Philip II, is in the Escorial, Spain (see thumbnail below}. (References: Michael Scholz-Hansel, El Greco: Domenikos Theotokopoulos, 1541-1614, Cologne: Taschen, 2004, ISBN 3822831719, p. 25; Donald Bruce, "Illuminated Gospels 'Seeing Salvation' At The National Gallery", Contemporary Review, April 2000.)