for hours, and
become lost to all around him, even forgetting his own Madonnas. One day
the sacristan asked him impatiently, why he so often stood there
staring. "I am waiting," Murillo answered, "till those holy men have
taken the Saviour down from the Cross." It hangs well lighted over one
of the altars of the Sacristy. Few faces have ever been painted which
convey depth and intensity of feeling in a more affecting way. The
agonized faces of the women at the foot of the Cross express all an
innocent human heart can feel of compassion, heart-wrung sorrow and
despair. The ecstasy with which Saint Anthony, who is kneeling in
prayer, gazes at the Child Jesus has seldom been surpassed in reality
and power. Entirely lifted beyond the earthly sphere, his features
kindle with ardent piety and divine love. The angels surrounding the
Infant Jesus have a simplicity of expression which never escapes those
who have loved and studied children. The coloring is unique and of a
truly penetrating softness. All the little details of the miserable cell
in which the saint is kneeling are rendered with the vigorous reality
so characteristic of the Spanish school, while in the upper part of the
painting one seems to see even the dust particles floating in the rays
of sunlight. The shadows have a marvelous transparency.

The Angel de la Guarda, or Guardian Angel, is one of the master's very
best works. The purples and yellows of the angel's vesture have kept
their depth and richness through all the centuries in which the colors
have been drying.

There might be a guide-book dealing with the paintings of the Cathedral
alone. How differently it is decorated from the great Gothic cathedrals
of the present Anglican Church! In Seville as in Florence, all the fine
arts seemed to flower and come to perfection during the sixteenth
century. Sculpture and painting were employed to embellish architecture,
as in the ancient days of Greece. The sister arts walked once more hand
in hand. The figures in stone and still more in terra-cotta which adorn
the exterior porches and the more decorative portions of the interior
are unusually fine. Many of the bishops, saints and kings have an
unmistakable Renaissance feeling. Take, for instance, such a statue as
the Virgin del Reposo, so dear to the Sevillians,--you feel in all the
handling the period of transition. Such sculptors as Miguel Florentin,
Juan Marin, and Diego de Pesquera must have been influenced by