chase of some works of art caused him to return to Italy in 1648. He then visited Florence, Bologna, and Parma, whither he was attracted by the works of Correggio. On his return to Madrid, Velazquez continued his labors peacefully until his death.

We now pass to the consideration of his works. Sixty-nine paintings by him are now collected in the Museum at Madrid, and in this number are included all his principal pictures; that is to say, except a very few carried out of Spain either as royal gifts or as the spoils of war, the whole works of Velazquez are in this museum.

He tried every style, and succeeded in all; he painted with equal success history (profane, at least), portraits-both on foot and on horseback-men and women, children and old men, historic landscapes, animals, interiors, flowers and fruits. We will neither notice his small dining-room pictures (bodegones) nor his little domestic scenes in the Flemish style. The most celebrated of his landscapes, at all events at Madrid, are a View of Aranjuez and a View of the Prado.

Among his historic landscapes we must especially mention the Visit of S. Antony to S. Paul the Hermit.

In portrait-painting Velazquez shares the glory of Titian, Van Dyck and Rembrandt. He has surpassed all his fellow-countrymen, and is scarcely equaled by his great rivals in other schools. Nothing can surpass his skill in depicting the human form, or his boldness in seizing it under its most difficult aspects for example, the equestrian portrait of his royal friend, Philip IV., the Queen Elizabeth of France and Marian of Austria, the young Infanta Margaret, and the Infante Don Balthazar, sometimes proudly handling an arquebus of his own height or else galloping on a spirited Andalusian pony.

Duke of Olivarez, another protector of the artist, is represented on horseback and clothed in armor; and in this picture, beside an equal amount of resemblance and life, there is also an energy and commanding grandeur which the painter could not give to the indolent monarch.

Unlike the Italians and all his fellow-countrymen, Velazquez did not like to treat sacred subjects. He has consequently left scarcely any picture of that description.

As for the profane pictures, genre paintings in their

subjects but historic by their dimensions and style, they are sufficiently numerous to satisfy the eager curiosity of the admirers of Velazquez. There are five principal ones in the Museum at Madrid. That which is called Las Hilanderas (the tapestry weavers) shows the interior of a manufactory. In an immense room, only dimly lighted in the hottest time of the day, workmen are occupied with the different employments of their trade, while some ladies are being shown some of the completed work. Velazquez, who usually placed his model in the open air and sunshine, has here braved the contrary difficulty. His whole picture is in a half-light, and, playing with such a difficulty, he has succeeded in producing the most wonderful effects of light and perspective. The exclusive lovers of color place Las Hilanderas as the first of his works.

La Fraga de Vulcan (the Forge of Vulcan) is also reckoned among his masterpieces.

The Surrender of Breda, which is usually called in Spain Las Lanzas (the Lances), is considered a still better work. The subject of it is very simple. The Dutch governor is presenting Spinola, the general of the Spanish forces, with the keys of the surrendered town. But of this Velazquez has made a great composition. On the left there is a part of the escort of the governor; his soldiers still retain their arms, arquebuses and halberts. On the right, before a troop, whose raised lances have given the picture the name it bears, is the staff of the Spanish general. Velazquez has concealed his own noble and earnest face under the plumed hat of the officer who occupies the farthest corner of the picture. Every point in this immense picture is worthy of praise. As a whole it is grand, and the details are thoroughly artistic and full of truth.

To pass from the Surrender of Breda to the Drinkers (Los Borrachos) is to pass from epic poem to a drinking song, and yet, instead of being inferior to the other, it is perhaps even greater. It is merely a comic scene, and yet it is one of those pictures of the beauty of which no description can give an idea. It is said that Sir David Wilkie went to Madrid expressly to study Velazquez, and that, still further simplifying the object of his journey, he only studied this one picture.

We know only one other picture which, as an imitation of nature, equals or perhaps even surpasses that of the Drinkers; and this other is also by Ve

are a Boar-hunt

at Aranjuez, a Nativity, and a Portrait of Philip IV of Spain; also a Dead Warrior -known as El Orlando Muerto. The Water-carrier (Aguador), at Apsley House, is his most celebrated picture in England; it is well known from engravings. Every where else, at St. Petersburg, Munich and Dresden, we merely find simple portraits as specimens of Velazquez, and

some of these are rather by his copyists than by himself. His compositions give us a vivid insight into the national life of his day; the fig

Juan Pareja (1610-1670), a mulatto, the slave and valet of Velazquez, whose business it was to pound the colors, clean the brushes, and put the colors on the palette, conceived a great desire to be an artist. During the day he watched his master paint, and listened to the lessons he gave to his pupils; then,

ures are evidently studied from the life, and the most humble scenes, while faithfully rendered, are With a keen never vulgar under his treatment. sense of humor, and a wide sympathy with human nature, under whatever rough disguise, he gave to his rustic groups a life and character scarcely inferior to Hogarth's marvelous satires.

during the night, he practiced the lesson with pencil and brush. Not till he was forty-five years old, did he think himself sufficiently skillful to reveal the secret so long kept. He then placed a picture which

he had done among those of Velazquez, which he knew Philip IV. would notice, and he thereby gained his freedom. Juan Bautista Martinez del

Mazo (1620?1687), the sonin-law of Velazquez, was one of his most skillful pupils. He was especially celebrated for his power of imitation; Palomino relates that copies of Titian, Tintoretto and

Paolo Veronese, which Mazo made in his youth, were sent into Italy, where they were, doubtless, admitted for originals. Mazo succeeded especially in copying the works of his master.

Claudio Coello (ab. 1635-1693) was in the Castilian school what Carlo Maratti had been in the Roman, "the last of the old masters." His father,

a sculptor in bronze, intended his son for the same profession, but Coello developed a decided talent for Painting; he improved his style by studying the works of Titian, Rubens and other great masters in the royal galleries. His masterpiece, which occupied him more than two years, is still in the Escurial; it represents the Collocation of the Host (El Cuadro de la Forma), and contains portraits of Charles II. and many of his courtiers,

Juan de Alfaro y Gamez (1640-1680) studied first under Antonio del Castillo, but subsequently with Velazquez, in whose school he greatly improved his coloring. Alfaro is said to have been absurdly vain. It is related of him by Palomino, that being employed to paint scenes from the Life of S. Francis for the cloister of the convent to that saint, he copied his subjects from prints and then signed each picture, "Alfaro pinxit"; the historian further tells us, that Alfaro's old master Castillo, in order to rebuke him, obtained leave to execute one, and then signed it, "Non pinxit Alfaro," which henceforth became a proverb. The masterpiece of Alfaro is his Guardian Angel, in the church of the Imperial College at Madrid.

After the death of Coello, the kings of Spain had, for many years, none but foreign painters. Charles II. sent for Luca Giordano (1632-1705), by whom there are no less than sixty-five works in the Madrid Gallery; Philip V. to France for Jean Ranc (16741735) and Michel Ange Houasse (1675-1730); and Charles III. to Italy for the German Raphael Mengs.

To come down nearer to the present time, we have but to mention a few names.

Francisco. Goya y Lucientes (1746-1825) was his own instructor, and took lessons only of the old masters. From this singular education his talent took a peculiar bent-inaccurate, wild and without method or style, but full of nerve, boldness and originality. Goya is the last heir, in a very distant degree, of the great Velazquez. His is the same manner, but looser and more fiery.

In his genre he is full of wit, and his execution is always superior to the subjects. But, like Velazquez, Goya founds his best title to celebrity on his portraits. His equestrian portraits of Charles IV. and Maria Louisa are in the Madrid Gallery. He is best known for his etchings, which are very good. Eighty of

these have been collected into a volume, which is called the "Works of Goya." These are witty allegories on the persons and things of his own time, and remind us of Rembrandt in their vigor and pointedness, of Callot in their invention, and of Hogarth in their humor.

After Goya there was a complete gap in Spanish art, but at the time of the Universal Exhibition at Paris in 1867, it was found to be reviving. Spain maintained her position honorably among the assembled nations. She was also again well represented at Paris in 1878. Within the last few years several painters have risen up and become celebrated; and of some of these we must give a brief record.

SPANISH ARTISTS OF RECENT DATE.

The art of Painting has in recent years suffered greatly in Spain from the general depression and lassitude which has had so debilitating an effect on the industrial, political and intellectual status of the peoples of the far South. Since the death of Zamacois in 1871, there can hardly be said to exist an artist of first rank of a purely Spanish school. Those who have attained a moderate degree of reputation have almost invariably adopted Paris or Rome as their home, and as in the case of Zamacois and of Fortuny, it is sometimes difficult to determine whether the painter can more properly be called a French or a Spanish artist. It would seem more exact, in the case of Fortuny, to admit the claims of Spain to the renown of his name, as not only was he of Spanish birth, but his art education was in great part acquired in Spain, and the best of his work was Spanish in subject and character; as may be seen by examining his splendid picture A Spanish Official, which we give as a specimen of his powers.

Eduardo Zamacois (1842-1871), studied painting under M. Meissonier. Many of his best pictures have been exhibited in the Paris Salon; two are especially worthy of mention, Buffon au 16° Siècle, exhibited in 1867, in which year he gained the medal of the society, and L'education a'un Prince, in 1870. Marian Fortuny (1838-1874) was born at Reuss,

a small town near Barcelona. His first success was the taking of the prix de Rome at the conclusion of his studies at the Academy of Barcelona. From a short stay in Rome he was recalled by the war with Morocco. He served on General Prim's staff, and

the sketches then taken on the actual battle-field were of great use to him in after years. The war ended, he resumed his studies in Barcelona, and afterward at Rome, where the impression made upon him by the work of Morelli had a great influence on his artistic manner. A characteristic incident was his painting for Barcelona a picture of The Battle of Tetuan. The town deputation became uneasy at the

chased many excellent examples of Fortuny, both original and duplicates. Among them was the water-color Carnival of the last Century. Fortuny was hardly less skillful as an etcher and water-colorist than with the oils. The study of Spanish masters at Madrid gave that mannerism to his work which justifies us in considering him as a follower of the old Spanish school. Here he painted Mariposa and other pictures. A stay of a

year or two in Rome produced some minor works, and in 1869 he finished his most famous painting, the Spanish Marriage. This was suggested by his own marriage, and is said to contain several portraits, among others, those of Fortuny's wife, of the artist Regnault, and of the Duchess of Colonna. It was about this period that he became carried away by the fondness of the modern French school for

minuteness of

detail and the effects of mise en scène, a tendency not suited to the true line of his personal genius. His studios, both in Rome and in Paris, became famous throughout the world for their luxurious fittings and bricà-brac, and was one of the great

art centers of those devoted to painting. The last four years of his life (18701874) saw a remarkable development in the bold, strong, individual expression of the man. At the outbreak of the FrancoPrussian war, and after a short stay at Madrid, he visited Granada, where he found a congenial climate and a splendid vicinity for the choice of subjects. Here were painted the Fencing Lesson, familiar to many of our readers, and the Tribunal of a Cadi. In 1872 he repaired once more to Rome, and there completed his last great work, the Academy of the Arcadians listening to an Unpublished Tragedy in the Gardens of the Society. His death was sudden, and on the very day on which it oc

BY FORTUNY.

curred he made a sketch from the Beethoven mask for Mme. Fortuny's album.

Fortuny's genius has been said to bear the same relation to Art, that Chopin's does to Music. It wants the Italian repose and classicism and sweetness, nor has it the grace and vivacity of the French school, but there is a strange picturesqueness, a rapid and effective portrayal of expression, a Gypsy wildness, that is well suited to a Spanish painter. His masterly handling of the brush compelled attention, and forced approval. The number of his oil paintings was not very large-perhaps the Serpent Charmer and A Book-Lover in the Library of Richelieu are the only ones not mentioned already that are really famous. Many of his etchings and water-colors are of rare power; one, The Prayer, was bought by Baron Rothschild a few years ago for 16,000 francs. Among his etchings, the Arab watching over the Body of his Friend, the Kabyle Mort and L'Idylle are noticeable for their effects of color, and the fine proofs already bring a high price.

Among other recent Spanish artists, perhaps Edward Rosales deserves the place of honor, though his death in 1873 prevented the full development of a most unusual genius. He may be said to have sprung into fame at a bound by the success of his Isabella the Catholic Dictating her Will-declared by all to be the best Spanish picture at the Paris Exposition of 1867. After his death The Death of Lucretia, another great picture, was brought to Paris. Its coloring is very rich, and it is commended as combining the nobility and pathos of tragedy with the gravity of history. Francisco Pradilla of Madrid, is best known by his Doña Juana la Locca, which obtained the medal of honor at the Paris Exposition of 1878, a somber but strong work. Doña Juana, it will be remembered, was the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella and the mother of Charles V. The picture represents her following the funeral cortége of her husband. Vincente Palmaroli has been compared with Fortuny, but bears a closer resemblance in method to Meissonier; to both, he is, of course, vastly inferior. His Sermon in the Sistine Chapel is his best picture. Others are The Listener, and The Connoisseur; engravings from the latter are often seen in shop-windows. Don Frederic Madrazo is court-painter at Madrid, and conductor of an artistic Review. He is not only a portrait painter of fame, but is particu

larly fine in historical portraits, such as those of Godfrey de Bouillon, Isabella of Spain, the Duchess of Medina-Cellini, etc. He was the father-inlaw of Fortuny, and has made an admirable portrait of his distinguished son-in-law. Louis and Ricardo Madrazo, brothers of Don Frederic, are also distinguished artists. A small picture by Don Ricardo brought $4,600 at the Johnstone sale in New York, in 1876.

Leon y Ecosura, a pupil of Gérôme, has painted many interiors which are greatly admired. Though his pictures are uneven in quality-some being elaborately finished, others approaching coarseness-he is gifted with breadth and strength of execution and harmonizes bright colors with singular skill. The Unexpected Visit; The Atelier of Velazquez; Lucretia Borgia at Venice; The Reception of the Ambassador (in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts); and The Irreconcilables, are the most famous of his works. Thomas Codezo (born in Havana, 1839) was a pupil of both Regnault and Fortuny, in Paris, and is a cosmopolitan, having painted and studied in Cuba, Madrid, Barcelona, Paris, Rome, Florence, and in the United States, where he now resides. He has painted many portraits of prominent people, among others of Cardinal McCloskey. He can hardly be called a great artist, but a copy of Raphael's Holy Family; an historical painting, Father Las Casas receiving the Spanish Prisoners; and a Sleeping Venus, are above the average in merit. Other Spanish painters who exhibited at Philadelphia in 1876 are Manuel Castellano of the Fine Art Museum at Madrid, whose Death of the Count Villamediana attracted attention; Alejo Vera, who received a medal for The Burial of San Lorenzo at Rome; and Lorenzo Valles, who exhibited the Insanity of Donna Juana de Castille. Benito Mercadé also exhibited at the same place a Translation of St. Francis of Assisi, treated with great purity of feeling and even solemnity. Joaquin Agrasot, a pupil of Martinez, has painted several genre and figure-pieces which have been highly praised.

It is hardly worth while to attempt to discriminate further among the crowd of lesser Spanish artists, some of them of great talent, but most of them mediocre and conventional. The unsettled state of the Spanish Government is one of the causes that hinder the advance of Painting, which is so evident in others countries at the present time.