private collections, prove him to have been a painter of no ordinary merit. He was especially skilful in representing the rich costumes of his day, but he lacks the delicate touch, and the power of giving natural expression to his portraits, of his master. His drawing is generally hard and “dry.” Juan Pantoja de la Cruz (b. in Madrid, 1551; d. about 1609) was Sanchez Coello’s best pupil. He was employed by Philip II. and Philip III. and their courts, and painted the latter king on horseback for the fine bronze statue commenced in Italy by Giovanni da Bologna, and finished by Tacca, now in the Plaza Mayor, at Madrid. The pictures by him of religious subjects in the Madrid Gallery are of inferior merit, but his portraits in the same collection prove him to have been a skilful painter.
A more truly Spanish painter than any of the former was Luis de Morales, called “El Divino Morales,” “more from his painting subjects of divinity than from any divinity of painting.” He was born at Badajoz early in the 16th century. His works have obtained a reputation which they do not deserve. His drawing is so defective in its conventional stiffness, and in expression he is so grotesquely unnatural and exaggerated, that it is scarcely to be believed that he lived nearly a century later than the great Umbrian painters. His colour is ashy and disagreeable in tone; the subjects of his pictures are generally the Agony of Christ, and the Sorrows of the Virgin; and he has a certain vulgar power of rendering intense physical suffering and strong emotions, which make them popular in Spain. Spanish writers on art, indeed, do not hesitate to rank his works with those of Michael Angelo and Leonardo da Vinci. ‘lhe most that can be said for them is that they show a certain individuality, which has been coarsely imitated by others whose works pass for those of the master. In the Madrid Gallery are some characteristic pictures by Morales, such as the ‘Presentation of the Infant Christ in the Temple’ (No. 849).
Another Spanish painter, who, like Morales, enjoys, both in Spain and elsewhere, a higher reputation than he deserves, is Vicente Juan Mucip, usually known as Juan de Juanes. He was born about 1528, in the province of Valencia, and studied in Italy, copying the works of Raphael and his school. The Spaniards boastfully call him the “Spanish Raphael.” His best pictures are at Valencia; but the Madrid Gallery possesses some characteristic examples—such as the series representing the martyrdom of St. Stephen. His portraits are sometimes excellent. He was a brilliant colourist, and was successful in representing costume and drapery; but in drawing, grace of composition and harmony of tone, in fact in all the highest qualities of his art, he was far behind the great Italian painters who preceded him by half acentury, and whom he but feebly imitated. Yet his heads of Christ have been compared by some critics with those of Leonardo da Vinci! He died in 1579.
In the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries many Italian painters, encouraged by the liberal patronage of the Spanish kings of the House of Austria, came to Spain. They were employed in decorating the halls of the Escorial, and of other royal palaces, and in painting for churches and convents. Pedro Campaña, although a Fleming by birth (he was born in Brussels in 1508), had studied in Italy, and had formed his style upon the Italian masters. He settled in Spain and painted, in 1548, the celebrated picture of ‘The Descent from the Cross,’ now in the Cathedral of Seville, which was so much admired by Murillo that, by his desire, he
