ortrait of Pope Innocent X., of which one copy is in
St. Petersburg, and the other in the Doria Palace in Rome, was painted.
The former is a bust and a study; the latter is a three-quarter length,
and is painted with a wonderful blend of red and white. It was copied
by Sir Joshua Reynolds, who declared that it was the finest work he had
seen in Rome. What would he have thought of the later masterpieces by
the same hand? The portrait was copied by other men too, and there is
no doubt that the copies were in some cases sold for originals.

By the time Velazquez returned to Madrid in 1651, at the urgent request
of his royal master, the court of Spain was _en fete_. Philip's wife,
to whom he had been married two years, was only seventeen, and required
amusement. Functions of every sort, excursions, entertainments on a
most sumptuous scale, were the order of the day, and because Velazquez
was now at the summit of his achievement, because he could paint
pictures that will endure as long as men care for art, it is difficult
indeed to forgive Philip IV. for making him Marshal of the Palace. To
be sure the post was well paid, the salary being about L400 a year with
lodging in the Treasure House, but the duties were endless. The king's
action was on a par with the custom that prevails in our own Foreign
Office, of sending a man who understands China thoroughly to serve the
country in Peru, and one who has mastered Russian politics to Portugal.

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PLATE V.--ANTONIO THE ENGLISHMAN

This was one of the dwarfs in the service of the king. His is one of
the last portraits painted by Velazquez. The figure is life size, and
hangs in the Prado at Madrid.

[Illustration: Plate V.]

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Happily Velazquez, for all that he was regarded in Madrid as a rather
lazy man, found time when he was Marshal of the Palace to paint the
best of all his portraits. He was honoured by Queen Mariana of
Austria, the king's second wife, who sat for him on several occasions,
and the results may be seen in Paris, Vienna, New York, and Madrid.
Some of the portraits, painted without a suspicion of flattery, show
the absurd head-dress, the false hair, and the extraordinary crinoline
that were worn at the time, in all their ugliness, and force us to see
how great was the distance lying between the royal house and any