for their
country a measure of immortality that throws into the background the
memory of such people as Carlos Quinto, Philip II., and those other
lesser lights who made the name of Spain respected or detested
throughout Europe and South America. If science and art are destined,
as some altruists hope, to unite the world in a bond that defies the
arbitrary boundaries made by rulers, then the name of Diego de Silva
Velazquez will stand high in the list of those whom the world delights
to honour, for people who are opposed diametrically on all questions of
politics and faith find ground upon which they may meet in security and
amity when they stand before the pictures of the great Spanish master.
And Cervantes, who used words instead of colours to express the life he
saw around him, would redeem Spain from insignificance if she had never
owned a colony, and had never sought to step beyond her own borders to
develop the arts of peace or follow the paths of war.

Perhaps it would be hard to find more diverse opinions than those that
are heard in the studio. Artists see life through the medium of many
temperaments, they are notoriously intemperate in their enthusiasms.
There are schools of painting to suit every conviction, and the work
that one man would give his all to possess would not find hanging space
upon the wall controlled by another. But before Velazquez even artists
forget their controversies; he stands, like Bach and Beethoven in the
world of music, respected even by those who do not understand. No
controversy rages round him; he has marched unchallenged to the highest
place in men's regard.

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PLATE II.--LAS MENINAS

This picture was painted about the year 1656, and, now in the Prado, is
considered one of the greatest works of the master. It presents the
Infanta Margarita attended by her maids of honour, while Velazquez
himself is shown painting the portraits of Philip IV. and his second
wife Mariana of Austria, who are seen reflected in the mirror.

[Illustration: Plate II.]

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It is interesting to note that a reputation unrivalled in the world of
pictures is founded upon a comparatively small number of works. One of
his latest critics reduces the pictures of Velazquez now in existence
to eighty-nine, while acknowledging that some have disappeared from the
royal