CLAUDIO COELLO (1635-1693), who, as we have said, has been called the last of the old Spanish masters, was intended by his father for his own profession, that of bronze-casting. But Claudio persuaded his father to allow him to study painting, and before the close of his life he became the most famous painter in Madrid. He was not only the court-painter, but also the painter to the Cathedral of Toledo and keeper of the royal galleries. It was not strange that he should feel that he merited the honor of painting the walls of the Escorial, and when this was refused him and Luca Giordano was selected for the work, Coello threw aside his brushes and paints, grew sad, then ill, and died a year later. His masterpiece is now in the Escorial; it represents the "Collocation of the Host." His own portrait painted by himself is in the gallery of the Hermitage at St. Petersburg. The school of Seville was the most important school of Spain. It is also known as the school of Andalusia. It dates from the middle of the fifteenth century, and its latest master, Alonso Miguel de Tobar, died in 1758. LUIS DE VARGAS (1502-1568), one of the earliest of the painters of the school of Seville, was a devout and holy man. He was accustomed to do penance, and in his room after his death scourges were found with which he had beaten himself, and a coffin in which he had been accustomed to lie and meditate 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!'"