THK HISTORY OP ART. 



hare a kind of indescribable elevation which HUMOR them almont 

 above tho reach of i-ritiiuMin. Hi i til img* have travel led out.- 

 > ido Sjciin fur mom than i.-* tlic' a-i- \utli thoHO of Velasquez. 

 Among the moat celebrated are tho " AHsnmption of tho Virgin," 

 and tho " Immaculate Conception," now in the Louvre, and tho 

 IVi'ditfiil Son," at Stafford House. A considerable number of 

 his works are to be found in England ; tho National Gallery 



With him the Spanish school sank into comparative 



<<>. The momentary connection with the Kcupire hiul 

 brought Spain for a whilu out ..f it - normal inoUtion behind 

 the Pyrenees, and the wealth of the now world had routed 

 fresh life for a century in the decaying kingdom. But she soon 

 relapsed when left to herself, and sank in art, u she sank in 

 literature, science, and philosophy. The ago ot Cervantes and 



TIIE vnioix AND CHILD. (By Murillo.) 



possesses three, including the " Holy Family," one of his best 

 examples. Somo of his pictures are taken from the common 

 low life of Madrid or Seville, treated, however, in a peculiar 

 lofty style, which deprives them of all their grossness. Such is 

 the magnificent "Beggar Boy," in the Louvre, a figure which no 

 artist except Murillo would ever have ventured to choose for a 

 model, but which his singular powers of treatment have made 

 into a wonderful picture. While painting a "St. Catherine" 

 in tho Capuchin church at Cadiz, Murillo fell from the scaffold- 

 ing, and died from the effects of his injuries. 



Lope de la Vega, of Velasquez and Murillo, was the only age 

 when Spain over contributed anything to the general elements 

 of life and progress in Europe. As in every other case, the 

 period of artistic greatness coincides, in Spain with the period 

 of commercial, political, and literary greatness. When the 

 general life of the country sank to the dull round of Spanish 

 thought and Spanish interests, the artistic movement sank with 

 it. It waa in the living and progressive northern countries in 

 England, France, Holland, and Germany that art waa hence- 

 forth to make her greatest advances. 



