and paint statues and bas-reliefs. Some specimens
of his work in this specialty still exist in Seville.

FRANCISCO DE HERRERA, the elder (1576-1656), was a very original painter.
He was born at Seville, and never studied out of Andalusia. He had so bad
a temper that he drove his children and his pupils away from him. He knew
how to engrave on bronze, and made false coins; when his forgery was
discovered, he took refuge with the Jesuits. While in their convent
Herrera painted the history of St. Hermengild, one of the patron saints of
Seville. When Philip IV. saw his picture he forgave him his crime, and set
him at liberty.

FRANCISCO ZURBARAN (1598-1662) was one of the first among Spanish
painters. He was skilful in the use of colors, and knew how to use sober
tints and give them a brilliant effect. He did not often paint the
Madonna. His female saints are like portraits of the ladies of his day. He
was very successful in painting animals, and his pictures of drapery and
still-life were exact in their representation of the objects he used for
models. He painted historical and religious pictures, portraits and
animals; but his best pictures were of monks. Stirling says: "He studied
the Spanish friar, and painted him with as high a relish as Titian painted
the Venetian noble, and Vandyck the gentleman of England."

Zurbaran was appointed painter to Philip IV. before he was thirty-five
years old. He was a great favorite with Philip, who once called Zurbaran
"the painter of the king, and king of painters." Zurbaran's finest works
are in the Museum of Seville. He left many pictures, and the Louvre claims
to have ninety-two of them in its gallery.

DIEGO RODRIGUEZ DE SILVA Y VELASQUEZ (1599-1660) was born at Seville, and
died at Madrid. His parents were of noble families; his father was Juan
Rodriguez de Silva, and his mother Geronima Velasquez, by whose name,
according to the custom of Andalusia, he was called. His paternal
grandfather was a Portuguese, but so poor that he was compelled to leave
his own country, and seek his fortune at Seville, and to this circumstance
Spain owes her greatest painter. Velasquez's father became a lawyer, and
lived in comfort, and his mother devoted herself to his education. The
child's great love of drawing induced his father to place young Velasquez
in the school of Herrera, where the pupil acquired something of his free,
bold style. But Velasquez soon became weary, and entered the school o