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.
Juan de las Roelas, commonly known in Spain as “El Clérigo Roelas,” was born at Seville about 1558, and died in 1625. THe 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 1680, 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 well-known 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 in 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
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