what is
at present known about the schools must be accepted subject to
critical revision hereafter.

[Illustration: FIG. 70.--MURILLO. ST. ANTHONY OF PADUA. BERLIN.]

The earliest school seems to have been made up from a gathering of
artists at Toledo, who limned, carved, and gilded in the cathedral;
but this school was not of long duration. It was merged into the
Castilian school, which, after the building of Madrid, made its home
in that capital and drew its forces from the towns of Toledo,
Valladolid, and Badajoz. The Andalusian school, which rose about the
middle of the sixteenth century, was made up from the local schools of
Seville, Cordova, and Granada. The Valencian school, to the
southeast, rose about the same time, and was finally merged into the
Andalusian. The Aragonese school, to the east, was small and of no
great consequence, though existing in a feeble way to the end of the
seventeenth century. The painters of these schools are not very
strongly marked apart by methods or school traditions, and perhaps the
divisions would better be looked upon as more geographical than
otherwise. None of the schools really began before the sixteenth
century, though there are names of artists and some extant pictures
before that date, and with the seventeenth century all art in Spain
seems to have centred about Madrid.

Spanish painting started into life concurrently with the rise to
prominence of Spain as a political kingdom. What, if any, direct
effect the maritime discoveries, the conquests of Granada and Naples,
the growth of literature, and the decline of Italy, may have had upon
Spanish painting can only be conjectured; but certainly the sudden
advance of the nation politically and socially was paralleled by the
advance of its art.

THE CASTILIAN SCHOOL: This school probably had no so-called founder.
It was a growth from early art traditions at Toledo, and afterward
became the chief school of the kingdom owing to the patronage of
Philip II. and Philip IV. at Madrid. The first painter of importance
in the school seems to have been Antonio Rincon (1446?-1500?). He is
sometimes spoken of as the father of Spanish painting, and as having
studied in Italy with Castagno and Ghirlandajo, but there is little
foundation for either statement. He painted chiefly at Toledo, painted
portraits of Ferdinand and Isabella, and had some skill in hard
drawing. Berruguete (1480?-1561) studied with Michael Angelo, and is
supposed