e; and the divine
infant, with his deep earnest eyes, leans forward in her arms,
struggling as it were almost out of the frame, as if to welcome the
carpenter Joseph home from his daily toil. The picture is colored with a
brilliancy which Murillo never excelled, glowing with a golden light, as
if the sun were always shining on the canvas. This admirable work is now
in the Museum of Seville.

ANECDOTE OF AN ALTAR-PIECE BY MURILLO.

One of Murillo's pictures, in the possession of a society of friars in
Flanders, was bought by an Englishman for a considerable sum, and the
purchaser affixed his signature and seal to the back of the canvas, at
the desire of the venders. In due time it followed him to England, and
became the pride of his collection. Several years afterwards, however,
while passing through Belgium, the purchaser turned aside to visit his
friends the monks, when he was greatly surprised to find the beautiful
work which he had supposed was in his own possession, smiling in all its
original brightness on the very same wall where he had been first
smitten by its charms! The truth was, that the monks always kept under
the canvas an excellent copy, which they sold in the manner above
related, as often as they could find a purchaser.

MURILLO AND HIS SLAVE GOMEZ.

Sebastian Gomez, the mulatto slave of Murillo, is said to have become
enamored of art while performing the menial offices of his master's
studio. Like Erigonus, the color grinder of Nealces, or like Pareja, the
mulatto of Velasquez, he devoted his leisure to the secret study of the
principles of drawing, and in time acquired a skill with the brush
rivalled by few of the regular scholars of Murillo. There is a tradition
at Seville, that he took the opportunity one day, when the painting room
was empty, of giving the first proof of his abilities, by finishing the
head of a Virgin, that stood ready sketched on his master's easel.
Pleased with the beauty of this unexpected interpolation, Murillo, when
he discovered the author of it, immediately promoted Gomez to the use of
those colors which it had hitherto been his task to grind. "I am indeed
fortunate, Sebastian," said the good-natured artist, "for I have not
only created pictures, but a painter."

AN ARTIST'S LOVE ROMANCE.

Francisco Vieira, an eminent Portuguese painter, was still a child when
he became enamored of Dona Ignez Elena de Lima, the daughter of noble
parents, who l