In this second commission our painter was less fortunate. The eight pieces represented St. Laurence's Martyrdom, five events in the life of Christ, the Descent of Tongues, and the Assumption. As they rapidly advanced, aided by several youths who had accompanied Federigo from Italy, he observed with anxiety the courtiers' cold or contemptuous silence; and, desiring to test his patron's feelings, he presented the Nativity to Philip with the arrogant exclamation, "Here, Sire, is all that painting can accomplish, a picture that may be viewed closely or from a distance." After long gazing on the canvas, his Majesty asked if those things in the basket were meant for eggs. So paltry a criticism says little for the monarch's connoisseurship, and the mortified artist was consoled by seeing his work placed on its destined altar. Mr. Stirling informs us that, upon this failure, he was set to paint six frescoes in the Escurial cloister, which gave as little satisfaction. In order to test his complaints of his assistants, he was then desired to execute the Conception without their aid, but with no better result. After his departure, several portions of his _retavola_ were dismissed from the high altar, and most of his frescoes were defaced; but notwithstanding these repeated disgusts, and the moderate success of two other altar-pieces mentioned by Conca, Zuccaro remained for nearly three years in Spain, and was finally dismissed with gifts and pensions exceeding the remuneration stipulated for his services. The solution of his disappointment is simple. The artistic genius of Italy was greatly exhausted: that of Spain was a virgin soil promising many golden harvests.[220] [Footnote 220: In referring to the _Annals of the Artists of Spain_, it is a sincere pleasure to bear my feeble testimony to the merits of that excellent work. It is replete with information new to the English reader, and is enriched by apt and copious illustrations selected from a wide range of literature and æsthetics.]