d of the Virgin on his easel Gomez dared to finish it.
Murillo was glad to find that he had made a painter of his slave, and
though the pictures of Gomez were full of faults his color was much like
that of his master. Two of his pictures are in the Museum of Seville. He
did not live long after Murillo's death in 1682.

DON ALONSO MIGUEL DE TOBAR (1678-1758) never attained to greatness. His
best original pictures were portraits. He made a great number of copies of
the works of Murillo, and was chiefly famous for these pictures. There is
little doubt that many pictures attributed to Murillo are _replicas_, or
copies by the hand of Tobar.

The school of Valencia flourished from 1506 to 1680. VICENTE DE JOANES
(about 1506-1579) was a painter of religious pictures who is scarcely
known out of Spain, and in that country his pictures are, almost without
exception, in churches and convents. He was very devout, and began his
works with fasting and prayer. It is related that on one occasion a Jesuit
of Valencia had a vision in which the Virgin Mary appeared to him, and
commanded him to have a picture painted of her in a dress like that she
then wore, which was a white robe with a blue mantle. She was to be
represented standing on a crescent with the mystic dove floating above
her; her Son was to crown her, while the Father was to lean from the
clouds above all.

The Jesuit selected Joanes to be the painter of this work, and though he
fasted and prayed much he could not paint it so as to please himself or
the Jesuit. At last his pious zeal overcame all obstacles, and his picture
was hung above the altar of the Immaculate in the convent of the Jesuits.
It was very beautiful--the artists praised it, the monks believed that it
had a miraculous power, and it was known as "La Purisima," or the
perfectly pure one.

Joanes excelled in his pictures of Christ. He seemed to have conceived the
very Christ of the Scriptures, the realization of the visions of St. John,
or of the poetry of Solomon. In these pictures he combined majesty with
grace and love with strength. Joanes frequently represented the Last
Supper, and introduced a cup which is known as the Holy Chalice of
Valencia. It is made of agate and adorned with gold and gems, and was
believed to have been used by Christ at his Last Supper with his
disciples. Some of the portraits painted by Joanes are very fine. In
manner and general effect his works are strangely like those of the