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Bartolomé Esteban Murillo was born at Seville in 1616. He studied under Juan del Castillo, a very indifferent painter, but formed his style, like Velasquez, on the works of Ribera and the Italian naturalistic painters. Like that great master, too, he modified his "manner" three times, as he gained in experience and knowledge. From his boyhood he painted pictures which were sold in the market-place of his native city, and bought by dealers; chiefly, it is said, for exportation to the Spanish colonies in America. After obtaining a considerable reputation at Seville, he went to Madrid to improve himself by the study of the works of the great Italian masters in the Royal Collection. Their influence led him to modify his first style, called by the Spaniards "seco," or dry, in which he had imitated the brown tints, dark shadows, and conventional treatment of drapery of Ribera; but he did not abandon it altogether. It may still be traced in his second, or "calido" (warm) manner, as in the celebrated Holy Family,' called 'del Pajarito' (No. 854), in the Madrid Gallery. The advice of Velasquez, who treated him with great kindness, and the works of Titian and Rubens, led him to adopt a warm, harmonious, and transparent colouring, and a more truthful rendering of nature; at the same time his drawing became more free, if not more correct. His third manner is termed by the Spaniards "vaporoso" (misty), from a gradual and almost imperceptible fusion of tints, producing a kind of hazy effect. In it are painted, for the most part, his well-known 'Miraculous Conceptions,' the Virgin standing on the crescent moon attended by angels. The three manners of Murillo are neither so well defined nor so easily recognised as those of Velasquez. He never completely abandoned one of them for the other, and in his last pictures he frequently returned to his "calido" style. As a portrait-painter he was inferior to Velasquez, although he excelled even in this branch of his art. He was also inferior to his great contemporary in his landscapes, which are conventional, and wanting in a true feeling for nature. It was in religious subjects, and especially in his Holy Families, that he surpassed him. His Virgins are taken from the common type of Andalusian beauty, slightly idealised; but he gives to them an expression of youthful innocence and religious sentiment, which makes him the most popular of Spanish painters. The Spaniards are naturally proud of him. They believe that he unites the best qualities of the greatest masters, and surpasses them all. By less partial critics he is, however, placed second to Velasquez, who unquestionably possessed a more original genius.

Returning to Seville, after his first and only visit to Madrid, Murillo established himself there for the rest of his life, painting, with the help of scholars, many pictures for churches and convents in Spain and her colonies. In the Peninsula, his best works are now only found at Madrid and in his native city. The French invaders and the picture-dealers carried the greater number away. Amongst those most worthy of note at Madrid are the St. Elizabeth of Hungary tending the Sick,' and the 'Patrician's Dream,' now in the Academy of S. Fernando, and the two 'Immaculate Conceptions' in the Gallery: at Seville, St. Thomas of Villanueva distributing Alms to the Poor,' in the public Museum; the • St. Anthony of Padua ' in the Cathedral; and the pictures in the Caridad. Of his well-known sun-burnt beggar-boys and girls there are none, that we know of, in Spain; many of those in European collections are probably by [Spain.-1882.]

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his favourite pupil, Villavicencio, in whose arms he died at Seville in 1682. There is a picture by this painter, who was of a noble family, and rather an amateur than an artist, in the Madrid Gallery, representing a group of boys at play. It has no great merit, but shows how he attempted to imitate his master in this class of subject. He was born in 1635, and died in 1700. The imitations and copies of Murillo by Tobar (d. 1758) are so successful that they frequently pass for originals. The same may be said of some by Meneses, who died early in the 18th century.

Amongst the contemporaries of Murillo was Iriarte (b. 1620; d. 1685), one of the few landscape-painters that Spain has produced. His landscapes were much esteemed by Murillo, but they are not entitled to rank with the works of any of the great masters in this branch of the art. Madrid Gallery contains five examples of them.

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The following painters may be mentioned amongst the best and most characteristic of the second class in the Spanish school:—Francisco de Zurbaran, born in Estremadura in 1598, died at Madrid, 1662, was essentially a religious painter, and his sombre colouring, and the subjects of his pictures, are characteristic of Spanish bigotry and of the Inquisition. Spain he is chiefly known by his altar-pieces for churches and convents; out of Spain by his monks and friars. A few figures of female saints prove that he was not insensible to grace of form and beauty of colour. But he is usually mannered, and without dignity. A disagreeable reddish hue pervades his larger pictures. He formed himself, like his cotemporaries, on the study of the Italian painters of the Naturalistic school. Philip IV. is said to have named him "Painter of the King, and King of Painters." He enjoyed the first title, but did not merit the second. His best work in Spain is, perhaps, the 'Apotheosis of S. Thomas Aquinas,' which is considered his masterpiece, in the Seville Museum. It is a grand, but somewhat stiff and unpleasing composition. Zurbaran is badly represented in the Madrid Gallery. The Christ Sleeping on the Cross' (No. 1133) is the most popular in it. One or two of his works are to be found in the Academy of San Fernando.

Alonso Cano (born at Granada, 1601; died there, 1667) enjoys the highest reputation in Spain after Zurbaran. He was painter, sculptor, and architect, and, moreover, carved and painted wooden figures of the Virgin and Saints, an art in which he attained great success and renown. Many examples of his skill may be seen at Granada. One of the most celebrated is the statuette of St. Francis in the sacristy of the Cathedral of Toledo. Cano was a violent, but not unkindly man, constantly engaged in quarrels and law-suits. He ended by becoming a canon of the Cathedral of Granada, after narrowly escaping from the clutches of the Inquisition. His drawing is carefully studied, but is frequently exaggerated, and wants ease and flow; his colouring conventional and somewhat weak; but there is a delicacy of expression and refinement in his works which have earned him the praise of some critics. The Madrid Gallery contains a few of his pictures amongst them a Dead Christ (No. 672); but he is best seen at Granada.

Francisco Herrera el Viejo, or the elder (b. 1576; d. 1656). His principal works are at Seville and out of Spain. The Madrid Gallery contains nothing by him. Spanish writers on art attribute to him the introduction into Spain of a new style of painting, characteristic of the national genius.

It was vigorous, but coarse, and has little to recommend it even to those who admire the Italian eclectic school. Like Cano, he was a man of hot temper, quarrelled with his pupils, amongst whom was Velasquez, and was thrown into prison on a charge of coining false money. He was released by Philip IV. on account of his merits as a painter. His best work in Spain is the Last Judgment,' in the church of St. Bernardo at Seville, which is praised for its composition and the correct anatomy of the human form. Herrera painted in fresco, for which he was well fitted from his bold and rapid execution; but his works in that material have, for the most part, perished.

Francisco Herrera el Mozo, or the younger (b. 1622; d. 1685), son of the former, studied at Rome, where he was chiefly known for his pictures of dead animals and still life. The Italians nicknamed him "Lo Spagnuolo degli pesci," from his clever representations of fish. He was a painter of small merit; weak and affected in his drawing, colour, and composition. The Madrid Gallery contains but one of his pictures-the Triumph of S. Hermenegildo.' Like his father, he painted frescoes, some of which are still preserved in the churches of Madrid. He was also an architect, and made the plans for the 'Virgen del Pilar' at Zaragoza.

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Juan de las Roelas, commonly known in Spain as "El Clérigo Roelas," was born at Seville about 1558, and died in 1625. He studied at Venice; hence the richness and brilliancy of colour in his best works, as in the fine picture of the Martyrdom of St. Andrew,' in the Museum of Seville. In the churches of that city are some altar-pieces by him worthy of notice. He is scarcely known out of Spain, or, indeed, out of Seville, although he may be ranked amongst the best of the Spanish painters of the second rank. The picture in the Madrid Gallery attributed to him, if genuine, is a very inferior work.

Juan de Valdés Leal, born at Cordova in 1630, died at Seville 1691, was a painter of considerable ability, but of a hasty and jealous temper, which he especially displayed towards Murillo, the superiority of whose work he would not acknowledge. His pictures are rare, and are best seen at Seville. The Caridad in that city contains two, representing the Triumph of Death, which are powerful, but coarse. He was also an engraver of

skill.

Francisco Rizzi, the son of a Bolognese painter who had settled in Spain, was born at Madrid in 1608, and died there in 1685. He was a rapid and not unskilful painter, and was employed to decorate in fresco, in the Italian fashion, the churches and royal palaces of the capital. His wellknown picture in the Madrid Gallery representing the Auto de Fe' held in the Plaza Mayor before Charles II. and his Queen, Marie Luisa of Orleans, in 1680, although awkward and formal in composition, is cleverly painted.

Claudio Coello (not to be confounded with Sanchez Coello), died 1693, was chiefly employed by the Spanish court in portrait-painting and ir decorating the royal palaces for triumphs and festivities. His best known and most important picture, in the sacristy of the Escorial, is the 'Santa Forma,' or 'Removal of the Miraculous Wafer of Gorcum,' in which he has introduced portraits of Charles II. and of the officers of his court. It is crowded and unskilful in composition, but has merits which show

that he had preserved the best traditions of the Spanish school of painters, of whom he was almost the last.

The history of Spanish painting closes with the 17th century. During the 18th there appeared a few feeble painters who imitated, but were even immeasurably behind, the Luca Giordanos, Tiepolos, and other Italians whom the Bourbon kings invited to Madrid to decorate the new royal Palace, and to make designs for the royal manufactory of tapestries. The first who attempted to revive Spanish art was Francisco Goya (born in 1746), a vigorous but eccentric painter and etcher in aqua fortis, not wanting in genius. He studied at Rome, and returning to Spain executed frescoes, with little success, in churches at Madrid and elsewhere. He became "pintor de camara," or court painter, to the weak Charles IV. and vicious Ferdinand VII. In numerous portraits of these kings and of members of the Spanish Bourbon family he made them, perhaps with deliberate malice-for in politics he was an ardent liberal-even more hideous than they were. His large picture of Charles IV. and his family in the Madrid Gallery is the best, but by no means an attractive example of his skill, and is in parts, especially in the details of costume, not altogether unworthy of Velasquez, whom he sought to imitate. But his genius was chiefly shown in his etchings, in which in a grotesque, and not always decent way, he lashed the vices and corruption of his country, and vented his hatred against its French invaders. The Spaniards are very proud of Goya. The author of the 'Guide to the Madrid Gallery' discovers in his works a union of the best qualities of Rembrandt, Titian, Paul Veronese, Watteau, and Lancret! He was, no doubt, a powerful and original painter, and his touch is often masterly; but he was incorrect in his drawing, and his colour is frequently exaggerated and unnatural, although occasionally reminding one of Rembrandt. His designs for the tapestries in the royal palaces are generally weak and ill-drawn: but they are interesting as representations of national manners and costume. Goya died in voluntary exile at Bordeaux in 1828, having left Spain disgusted with the political reaction which set in on the restoration of the Bourbons, and with the persecution of the best and most enlightened of his countrymen. His works have of late years been much sought after, especially in France. His etchings, consisting chiefly of political caricatures (caprichos), scenes in the bull-ring, the horrors of war, &c., are rare. A new edition has recently been published of the Caprichos' from the worn-out plates.

Goya may be considered the founder of the modern Spanish school of painting, which has produced Fortuny, Madrazo, Palmaroli, and a number of other clever painters who have achieved a European reputation. It is not, however, in Spain, but in the private collections of London, Paris, and New York, that their principal works are to be found. Spaniards have little love or knowledge of art, and the high prices it is now the fashion to pay for Spanish pictures are beyond their means.

For the general history of Spanish painting the English traveller may consult Stirling's Annals of the Artists of Spain,' in 3 vols.; Head's 'Handbook of the Spanish School of Painting;' and Ford's able and witty criticisms scattered through the original edition of the Handbook for Spain.' The best Spanish authority on Spanish art is Cean Bermudez (Diccionario Historico de los mas ilustres Profesores de las Bellas Artes

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en España), who has been called the Spanish Vasari, and to whom all modern writers on the subject are more or less indebted. Don Pedro Madrazo, in his 'Catalogue of the Madrid Gallery' (in two volumes), has given valuable and accurate information relating to the principal Spanish masters and their works.

§ 19.-ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN.

The history of architecture in Spain is similar to that of France and other countries of Northern Europe, with, however, the essential difference that Moorish art in the Middle Ages attained in Spain as great an importance as in the East, and when combined with Christian art, a new style was formed, known by the name of Morisco or Mudejar, which is not met with out of the Spanish Peninsula, and is of great interest.

Spanish architecture may be divided, after the prehistoric period, and invasions of the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, in the following manner :— 1. Roman period, until the invasions of the Goths.

2. Latin Byzantine style, 5th to end of 10th centy.

3. Moorish architecture, 8th to 15th centy.

4. Romanesque style, 11th, 12th, and part of 13th centy.

5. Pointed architecture, 13th, 14th, 15th, and part of 16th centy.

6. Mudejar style, 13th, 14th, 15th, and part of 16th centy.

7. Renaissance or Plateresque style, Græco-Roman, and Churrigueresque.

PREHISTORIC MONUMENTS.

Monuments of this kind are frequently to be met with in the Northern Provinces, Andalucia and Minorca. An important example is the Cueva de Menga (Antequera). It consists of a gallery of stones of enormous size, which was covered with earth forming a tumulus. Dolmens, menhirs, triliths, and oscillating stones may be seen at the plain of Alava (on the road from Vitoria to Pamplona), Arios (Navarre), Sierra de Sejos (Reinosa), Luque (Cordova), &c. The Talyots near Mahon (Minorca) are extremely interesting, and well worth a visit. Consult Fergusson's 'Stone Monuments,' and F. Duro's article in La Academia,' 1877, p. 184. These studies have only begun in Spain; much therefore remains to be investigated on this subject. It is difficult to classify Phoenician or Carthaginian architecture. The walls of Tarragona, of immense polygonal stones, similar to those of the Etruscan and Greek akropolis, are of the highest interest. Their origin continues to be a matter of doubt.

ROMAN PERIOD.

Several of the inscriptions which have come down to us of this period (see Corpus Inscrip.,' vol. ii., Emil Hübner) mention different buildings of public utility and adornment which were in course of construction in Spain. The number which still remains is very great, and may be found in almost every province; many have, however, been sadly mutilated. The finest are undoubtedly the aqueduct at Segovia (it is constructed of huge stones, and is still used for carrying water to the town), the Bridge