UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME 



M A D Rl D 



A HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNT OF THE 

 SPANISH CAPITAL, WITH 450 ILLUSTRATIONS 



MADRID is at once one of the most interesting and most maligned 

 cities in Europe. It stands at an elevation of 2,500 feet above the 

 sea level, j n the centre of an arid, treeless, waterless, and wind-blown 

 plain; but whatever may be thought of the wisdom of selecting a 

 capital in such a situation, one cannot but admire the uniqueness of 

 its position, and the magnificence of its buildings, and one is forced to admit that, 

 having fairly entered the path of progress, Madrid bids fair to become one of the 

 handsomest and most prosperous of European cities. 



The splendid promenades, the handsome buildings, and the spacious theatres 

 combine to make Madrid one of the first cities of the world, and the author has 

 endeavoured with the aid of the camera, to place every feature and aspect of the 

 Spanish metropolis before the reader. Some of the illustrations reproduced here 

 have been made familiar to the English public by reason of the interesting and 

 stirring events connected with the Spanish Royal Marriage, but the greater number 

 were either taken by the author, or are the work of photographers specially 

 employed to obtain new views for the purpose of this volume. 



UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME 



GOYA 



A BIOGRAPHY AND APPRECIATION. ILLUSTRATED 

 BY REPRODUCTIONS OF 600 OF HIS PICTURES 



THE last of the old masters and the first of the moderns, as he has been 

 called, Francisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes is not so familiarised to 

 English readers as his genius deserves. He was born at a time when 

 the tradition of Velazquez was fading, and the condition of Spanish 

 painting was debased almost beyond hope of salvation ; he broke 

 through the academic tradition of imitation ; " he, next to Velazquez, is to be 

 accounted as the man whom the Impressionists of our time have to thank for 

 their most definite stimulus, their most immediate inspiration." 



The genius of Goya was a robust, imperious, and fulminating genius ; his 

 iron temperament was passionate, dramatic, and revolutionary ; he painted 

 a picture as he would have fought a battle. He was an athletic, warlike, and 

 indefatigable painter ; a naturalist like Velazquez ; fantastic like Hogarth ; 

 eccentric, like Rembrandt ; the last flame-coloured flash of Spanish genius. 



It is impossible to reproduce his colouring ; but in the reproductions of his 

 works the author has endeavoured to convey to the reader some idea of Goya's 

 boldness of style, his mastery of frightful shadows and mysterious lights, and 

 his genius for expressing all terrible emotions. 



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