254: SKETCHES OF THE OLD MASTEES. 



Dolorosa, his Ecce Homo, his Magdalene, his St. John sleeping, 

 are all beautiful, and have been many times copied and imitated. 



Carlo Maratti-^Was born at Camerino, up in the mountains 

 from Ancona, in 1625, and died at Rome in 1713. He was a 

 very pleasing painter, but not a very original genius. Having 

 had the good fortune to secure the favor of the Popes of his 

 time, he became very popular in Rome, and has been called the 

 u Last of the Romans." His best works, like those of all the 

 last painters, were Madonnas and Holy Families. 



Here ends the list of the old masters in Italy. We have men- 

 tioned all those who have any claims to originality and inborn 

 genius. They have had no successors among their countrymen. 

 Outside of Italy we have occasion to mention, for the purpose 

 of completing the list, only one name, that of 



Murillo born at Seville, in Spain, in 1617, where also he died 

 in 1682. In his early life he was harassed by poverty, and his 

 pictures were frequently sold for what they would bring on the 

 street. But at the age of thirty he married a rich and noble 

 wife, and from this time he took rank among the first in Seville. 

 His earlier works were largely from common life, as beggar boys, 

 peasants, &c. Later he painted almost exclusively religious sub- 

 jects. In this field he is probably without a rival. Although 

 it was said that he had covered more canvas than any other 

 painter, yet in all the vast number of his paintings there is no 

 sameness, no tiresomeness. Every repetition of the sainted 

 Mary has that in it of varied beauty and tenderness and purity, 

 that touches even the unsuperstitious heart, and that, in those 

 days of saint worship, must have stirred the very depths of 

 religious emotion. 



It is often a matter of great surprise to visitors of foreign 

 galleries to see such countless numbers of Madonnas, and scenes 

 from the life of the Virgin Mary. The truth is that these paint- 

 ings have all been at one time objects of worship in some church 

 or private chapel. In Catholic countries the votaries kneel down 

 and say their prayers before pictures of the Blessed Virgin. A 

 beautiful painting, from which the Mother of God looked down 

 upon the worshipers with the ineffable sweetness or the mournful 



