er to take her
Grace's portrait. Ladies lived for the most part in a sort of Oriental
seclusion, amongst duennas, waiting-women, and dwarfs; and going abroad
only to mass, or to take the air in curtained carriages on the Prado. In
such a state of things, the rarity of female portraits in the Spanish
collections was a natural consequence.

MURILLO'S PICTURES IN SPANISH AMERICA.

It is related that this great Spanish painter visited America in early
life, and painted there many works; but the later Spanish historians
have shown that he never quitted his native country; and the
circumstance of his pictures being found in America, is best accounted
for by the following narrative. After acquiring considerable knowledge
of the art under Juan del Castillo at Seville, he determined to travel
for improvement; but how to raise the necessary funds was a matter of
difficulty, for his parents had died leaving little behind them, and his
genius had not yet recommended him to the good offices of any wealthy
or powerful patron. But Murillo was not to be balked of his cherished
desires. Buying a large quantity of canvas, he divided it into squares
of various sizes, which he primed and prepared with his own hands for
the pencil, and then converted into pictures of the more popular saints,
landscapes, and flower-pieces. These he sold to the American traders for
exportation, and thus obtained a sum of money sufficient for his
purpose.

MURILLO'S "VIRGIN OF THE NAPKIN."

The small picture which once adorned the tabernacle of the Capuchin high
altar at Seville, is interesting on account of its legend, as well as
its extraordinary artistic merits. Murillo, whilst employed at the
convent, had formed a friendship with a lay brother, the cook of the
fraternity, who attended to his wants and waited on him with peculiar
assiduity. At the conclusion of his labors, this Capuchin of the kitchen
begged for some trifling memorial of his pencil. The painter was quite
willing to comply, but said that he had exhausted his stock of canvas.
"Never mind," said the ready cook, "take this napkin," offering him that
which he had used at dinner. The good-natured artist accordingly went to
work, and before evening he had converted the piece of coarse linen into
a picture compared to which cloth of gold or the finest tissue of the
East would be accounted worthless. The Virgin has a face in which
thought is happily blended with maidenly innocenc