Philip in the Dulwich Gallery is rather more than doubtful. The
Wallace Collection has a few beautiful examples of Velazquez, and after
that there are about fifty private owners of pictures that cannot be
readily seen. Perhaps a considerable proportion of these works would,
if subjected to very careful scrutiny, reveal themselves as copies by
Mazo or others. In France there are half-a-dozen fine pictures in the
Louvre. Germany can show some in Berlin, Dresden, and Munich; Holland
has one or two. There are less than a dozen in all Italy. The
Hermitage Gallery in St. Petersburg has five or six, and Vienna about
twice as many; but to see Velazquez one must go to Madrid. The Museo
del Prado has over sixty of the artist's pictures, and though a small
proportion of these have scarcely a touch of the master's hand, all his
greatest work has found a resting-place here. Las Lanzas, Las
Hilanderas, Las Meninas, Philip IV. on horseback, Don Balthasar Carlos
on his pony, the Crucifixion, the Coronation of the Virgin, the Dwarfs,
AEsop, Menippus--all these are to be seen in the Prado; the greater
number being in the Salon of Isabella, an octagonal room in which one
may spend long hours. The writer, on the occasion of his last visit to
Madrid, made a note of the number of visitors to the famous octagonal
room during the four mornings he spent there. In the course of some
twelve hours the room was visited by some twelve people! It is only
fair to say that it was not in the tourist season; the month was June,
and nobody stayed in Madrid from choice.

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PLATE VIII.--THE PRINCESS MARIA THERESA OF AUSTRIA

This daughter of Philip IV. became Queen of France. The picture was
painted when she was about ten years of age, and consequently belongs
to the last period of Velazquez' work. It was hung in the Alcazar
until some time in the eighteenth century, when it was transferred to
the Prado.

[Illustration: Plate VIII.]

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There are pictures by Velazquez to be seen in Madrid outside the Prado,
but for the most part they are in private houses, and are not
accessible to everybody. Seville boasts half-a-dozen canvases by her
greatest painter, and there are a few elsewhere in Spain; but it may be
said that those who know the Salon of Isabella have seen Velazquez at
his best, and that those who