in his pictures is correct, and the colouring original and skilfully managed, so that the figures stand out in striking relief. What has been considered his best easel-work, the “Last Judgment,” in the church of San Bernardo at Seville, is an original and striking composition, showing in its treatment of the nude how ill-founded the common belief was that Spanish painters, through ignorance of anatomy, understood only the draped figure. Perhaps his best fresco is that on the dome of the church of San Buenaventura; but many of his frescoes have perished, some by the effects of the weather and others by the artist’s own carelessness in preparing his surfaces. He has, however, preserved several of his own designs in etchings. For his easel-works Herrera often chose such humble subjects as fairs, carnivals, ale-houses and the like.
His son Francisco Herrara (1622–1685), surnamed el Mozo (the young), was also an historical and fresco painter. Unable to endure his father’s cruelty, the younger Herrera, seizing what money he could find, fled from Seville to Rome. There, instead of devoting himself to the antiquities and the works of the old Italian masters, he gave himself up to the study of architecture and perspective, with the view of becoming a fresco-painter. He did not altogether neglect easel-work, but became renowned for his pictures of still-life, flowers and fruit, and from his skill in painting fish was called by the Italians Lo Spagnuolo degli pesci. In later life he painted portraits with great success. He returned to Seville on hearing of his father’s death, and in 1660 was appointed subdirector of the new academy there under Murillo. His vanity, however, brooked the superiority of no one; and throwing up his appointment he went to Madrid. There he was employed to paint a San Hermenegildo for the barefooted Carmelites, and to decorate in fresco the roof of the choir of San Felipe el Real. The success of this last work procured for him a commission from Philip IV. to paint in fresco the roof of the Atocha church. He chose as his subject for this the Assumption of the Virgin. Soon afterwards he was rewarded with the title of painter to the king, and was appointed superintendent of the royal buildings. He died at Madrid in 1685. Herrera el Mozo was of a somewhat similar temperament to his father, and offended many people by his inordinate vanity and suspicious jealousy. His pictures are inferior to the older Herrera’s both in design and in execution; but in some of them traces of the vigour of his father, who was his first teacher, are visible. He was by no means an unskilful colourist, and was especially master of the effects of chiaroscuro. As his best picture Sir Edmund Head in his Handbook names his “San Francisco,” in Seville Cathedral. An elder brother, known as Herrera el Rubio (the ruddy), who died very young, gave great promise as a painter.
HERRERA Y TORDESILLAS, ANTONIO DE (1549–1625),
Spanish historian, was born at Cuellar, in the province of Segovia
in Spain. His father, Roderigo de Tordesillas, and his mother,
Agnes de Herrera, were both of good family. After studying for
some time in his native country, Herrera proceeded to Italy, and
there became secretary to Vespasian Gonzago, with whom, on
his appointment as viceroy of Navarre, he returned to Spain.
Gonzago, sensible of his secretary’s abilities, commended him to
Philip II. of Spain; and that monarch appointed Herrera first
historiographer of the Indies, and one of the historiographers of
Castile. Placed thus in the enjoyment of an ample salary,
Herrera devoted the rest of his life to the pursuit of literature,
retaining his offices until the reign of Philip IV., by whom he was
appointed secretary of state very shortly before his death,
which took place at Madrid on the 29th of March 1625. Of
Herrera’s writings, the most valuable is his Historia general de
los hechos de los Castellanos en las islas y tierra firme del Mar
Oceano (Madrid, 1601–1615, 4 vols.), a work which relates the
history of the Spanish-American colonies from 1492 to 1554.
The author’s official position gave him access to the state papers
and to other authentic sources not attainable by other writers,
while he did not scruple to borrow largely from other MSS.,
especially from that of Bartolomé de Las Casas. He used his
facilities carefully and judiciously; and the result is a work on
the whole accurate and unprejudiced, and quite indispensable
to the student either of the history of the early colonies, or of the
institutions and customs of the aboriginal American peoples.
Although it is written in the form of annals, mistakes are not
wanting, and several glaring anachronisms have been pointed
out by M. J. Quintana. “If,” to quote Dr Robertson,
“by attempting to relate the various occurrences in the New
World in a strict chronological order, the arrangement of events
in his work had not been rendered so perplexed, disconnected
and obscure that it is an unpleasant task to collect from different
parts of his book and piece together the detached shreds of a
story, he might justly have been ranked among the most eminent
historians of his country.” This work was republished in 1730,
and has been translated into English by J. Stevens (London,
1740), and into other European languages.
Herrera’s other works are the following: Historia de lo sucedido en Escocia é Inglaterra en quarenta y quatro años que vivió la reyna Maria Estuarda (Madrid, 1589); Cinco libros de la historia de Portugal, y conquista de las islas de los Açores, 1582–1583 (Madrid, 1591); Historia de lo sucedido en Francia, 1585–1594 (Madrid, 1598); Historia general del mundo del tiempo del rey Felipe II, desde 1559 hasta su muerte (Madrid, 1601–1612, 3 vols.); Tratado, relacion, y discurso historico de los movimientos de Aragon (Madrid, 1612); Comentarios de los hechos de los Españoles, Franceses, y Venecianos en Italia, &c., 1281–1559 (Madrid, 1624, seq.). See W. H. Prescott, History of the Conquest of Mexico, vol. ii.
HERRICK, ROBERT (1591–1674), English poet, was born at
Cheapside, London, and baptized on the 24th of August 1591.
He belonged to an old Leicestershire family which had settled in
London. He was the seventh child of Nicholas Herrick, goldsmith,
of the city of London, who died in 1592, under suspicion
of suicide. The children were brought up by their uncle, Sir
William Herrick, one of the richest goldsmiths of the day, to
whom in 1607 Robert was bound apprentice. He had probably
been educated at Westminster school, and in 1614 he proceeded to
Cambridge; and it was no doubt during his apprenticeship that
the young poet was introduced to that circle of wits which he was
afterwards to adorn. He seems to have been present at the first
performance of The Alchemist in 1610, and it was probably about
this time that Ben Jonson adopted him as his poetical “son.”
He entered the university as fellow-commoner of St John’s
College, and he remained there until, in 1616, upon taking his
degree, he removed to Trinity Hall. A lively series of fourteen
letters to his uncle, mainly begging for money, exists at Beaumanoir,
and shows that Herrick suffered much from poverty at
the university. He took his B.A. in 1617, and in 1620 he became
master of arts. From this date until 1627 we entirely lose sight of
him; it has been variously conjectured that he spent these years
preparing for the ministry at Cambridge, or in much looser
pursuits in London. In 1629 (September 30) he was presented by
the king to the vicarage of Dean Prior, not far from Totnes in
Devonshire. At Dean Prior he resided quietly until 1648, when
he was ejected by the Puritans. The solitude there oppressed
him at first; the village was dull and remote, and he felt very
bitterly that he was cut off from all literary and social associations;
but soon the quiet existence in Devonshire soothed and
delighted him. He was pleased with the rural and semi-pagan
customs that survived in the village, and in some of his most
charming verses he has immortalized the morris-dances, wakes
and quintains, the Christmas mummers and the Twelfth Night
revellings, that diversified the quiet of Dean Prior. Herrick
never married, but lived at the vicarage surrounded by a happy
family of pets, and tended by an excellent old servant named
Prudence Baldwin. His first appearance in print was in some
verses he contributed to A Description of the King and Queen
of Fairies, in 1635. In 1650 a volume of Wit’s Recreations
contained sixty-two small poems afterwards acknowledged by
Herrick in the Hesperides, and one not reprinted until our own
day. These partial appearances make it probable that he visited
London from time to time. We have few hints of his life as a
clergyman. Anthony Wood says that Herricks’s sermons were
florid and witty, and that he was “beloved by the neighbouring
gentry.” A very aged woman, one Dorothy King, stated that
the poet once threw his sermon at his congregation, cursing them
for their inattention. The same old woman recollected his
favourite pig, which he taught to drink out of a tankard. He
