th Carreno at the house of Don Pedro
de Arce, when a discussion arose about the merits of a certain copy of
Titian's St. Margaret, which hung in the room After all present had
voted it execrable, Carreno quietly remarked, "It at least has the merit
of showing that no man need despair of improving in art, for I painted
it myself when I was a beginner."

CARRENO'S ABSTRACTION OF MIND.

Being at his easel one morning with two friends, one of them, for a
jest, drank the cup of chocolate which stood untasted by his side. The
maid-servant removing the cup, Carreno remonstrated, saying that he had
not breakfasted, and on being shown that the contents were gone,
appealed to the visitors. Being gravely assured by them that he had
actually emptied the cup with his own lips, he replied, like Newton,
"Well really, I was so busy that I had entirely forgotten it."

ANECDOTE OF CESPEDES' LAST SUPPER.

The Cathedral of Cordova still possesses his famous Supper, but in so
faded and ruinous a condition that it is impossible to judge fairly of
its merits. Palomino extols the dignity and beauty of the Saviour's
head, and the masterly discrimination of character displayed in those of
the apostles. Of the jars and vases standing in the foreground, it is
related that while the picture was on the easel, these accessories
attracted, by their exquisite finish, the attention of some visitors, to
the exclusion of the higher parts of the composition, to the great
disgust of the artist. "Andres!" cried he, somewhat testily, to his
servant, "rub out these things, since after all my care and study, and
amongst so many heads, figures, hands, and expressions, people choose to
see nothing but these impertinences;" and much persuasion and entreaty
were needed to save the devoted pipkins from destruction.

ZUCCARO'S COMPLIMENT TO CESPEDES.

The reputation which the Spanish painter Cespedes enjoyed among his
cotemporaries, is proved by an anecdote of Federigo Zuccaro. On being
requested to paint a picture of St. Margaret for the Cathedral of
Cordova, he for some time refused to comply, asking, "Where is Cespedes,
that you send to Italy for pictures?"

DONA BARBARA MARIA DE HUEVA.

Dona Barbara Maria de Hueva was born at Madrid in 1733. Before she had
reached her twentieth year, according to Bermudez, she had acquired so
much skill in painting, that at the first meeting of the Academy of St.
Ferdinand in 1752, on the