editate upon death and a future life. It is said that Vargas studied
twenty-eight years in Italy. His pictures were fine. His female heads were
graceful and pure, his color good, and the whole effect that of grand
simplicity. His picture of the "Temporal Generation of Our Lord" is his
best work in Seville. Adam is kneeling in the foreground, and his leg is
so well painted that the picture has been called "La Gamba." In spite of
his seriousness Vargas was a witty man. On one occasion he was asked to
give his opinion of a very poor picture of "Christ on the Cross." Vargas
replied: "He looks as if he were saying, 'Forgive them, Lord, for they
know not what they do!'"

PABLO DE CESPEDES (1538-1608) was born at Cordova, and is an important
person in the history of his time, for he was a divine, a poet, and a
scholar, as well as an architect, sculptor, and painter. He was a graduate
of the University of Alcala, and excelled in Oriental languages. He
studied art in Rome, and while there made a head of Seneca in marble, and
fitted it to an antique trunk; on account of this work he was called
"Victor il Spagnuolo." Zuccaro was asked to paint a picture for the
splendid Cathedral of Cordova; he declined, and said that while Cespedes
was in Spain they had no need of Italian artists. The pictures of Cespedes
which now remain are so faded and injured that a good judgment can
scarcely be formed of them; but they do not seem to be as fine as they
were thought to be in his day. His "Last Supper" is in the Cathedral of
Cordova. In the foreground there are some jars and vases so well painted
that visitors praised them. Cespedes was so mortified at this that he
commanded his servant to rub them out, and only the most judicious
admiration for the rest of the picture and earnest entreaty for the
preservation of the jars saved them from destruction. He left many
writings upon artistic subjects and an essay upon the antiquity of the
Cathedral of Cordova. He was as modest as he was learned, and was much
beloved. He was made a canon in the Cathedral of Cordova, and was received
with "full approbation of the Cordovese bishop and chapter."

FRANCISCO PACHECO (1571-1654) was born at Seville. He was a writer on art,
and is more famous as the master of Velasquez and on account of his books
than for his pictures. He established a school where younger men than
himself could have a thorough art education. Pacheco was the first in
Spain to properly gild