el and of Michelangelo. In 1560, while
yet in Rome, proceedings were taken against him by the Inquisition at
Valladolid on account of a letter which, found among the papers of the
archbishop of Toledo, had been written by Cespedes during the preceding
year, and in which he had spoken with great freedom against the holy
office and the inquisitor-general, Fernando de Valdes. Cespedes remained
in Rome at this critical moment, and he appears rightly to have treated
the prosecution with derision. It is not known how he contrived to bring
the proceedings to an end; he returned, however, to Spain a little
before 1577, and in that year was installed in a prebend of the
cathedral at Cordova, where he resided till his death. Pablo de Cespedes
has been called the most _savant_ of Spanish artists. According to his
friend Francisco Pacheco, to whom posterity is indebted for the
preservation of all of Cespedes's verse that is extant, the school of
Seville owes to him its introduction to the practice of chiaroscuro. He
was a bold and correct draughtsman, a skilful anatomist, a master of
colour and composition; and the influence he exerted to the advantage of
early Spanish art was considerable. Cristobal de Vera, Juan de Penalosa
and Zambrano were among his pupils. His best picture is a Last Supper at
Cordova, but there are good examples of his work at Seville and at
Madrid. Cespedes was author of several opuscules in prose on subjects
connected with his profession. Of his poem on _The Art of Painting_
enough was preserved by Pacheco to enable us to form an opinion of the
whole. It is esteemed the best didactic verse in Spanish; and it has
been compared, not disadvantageously, with the _Georgics_. It is written
in strong and sonorous octaves, in the majestic declamatory vein of
Fernando Herrera, and is not altogether so dull and lifeless as is most
didactic verse. It contains a glowing eulogy of Michelangelo, and some
excellent advice to young painters, insisting particularly on hard work
and on the study of nature. The few fragments yet remaining, amounting
in all to some six hundred lines, were first printed by Pacheco in his
treatise _Del arte de la pintura_, in 1649.

CESPEDES Y MENESES, GONZALO DE (1585?-1638), Spanish novelist, was born
at Madrid about 1585. Nothing positive is known of him before the
publication of his celebrated romance, the _Poema tragico del Espanol
Gerardo, y desengano del amor lascivo_ (1615-1617); the