“May it please God in His mercy to exile from the world the vulgar enamellers, and in the supreme cause of truth, harmony, and enlightenment to establish for flesh-painting the use of the ‘mat’ colouring” (this ‘mat’ or dull colouring superseded the burnished or polished colouring), “which approaches nearer to Nature, lends itself to numerous retouches, and so permits the production of that delicacy which to-day we so much admire. It is true that the moderns--by whom I mean those between the ancient painters and ourselves--began to employ this style, as we may gather from their treatises on sculpture and from what we see on the old altar-screens, but the merit of having revived the art in Spain, and of giving, thanks to it, a better light and more of life to good sculpture, I dare to say belongs in truth to me. At the least I am the only one in Seville who since the year 1600 preached and practised it. It is well to know that on the 17th of January in that year I painted in ‘mat’ the Christ, executed by the goldsmith Juan Bautista Franconio, after the model of the ‘four nails’ Crucifixion of Michael Angelo, which he brought from Rome. Since then all artists have imitated me. It would take too long to enumerate the remarkable works of Gaspar Nuñez Delgado and Martinez Montañés which this city possesses, and in which I have collaborated; but it would be unpardonable if I did not specify some of them, as they are among the best of the number which have proved the superiority of this invention.” He then gives a list of polychromes which he has coloured, works which we shall notice in a later chapter. Afterwards he continues:-- “Whence have they acquired the audacity, those who claim that painting on flat surfaces dominates the arts, and that if they had to paint the flesh of a statue they could do it better with their feet than the specialists with their hands? They are very much mistaken in that, for if they tried they would bring no grace, nor lightness, nor freshness to the work. In the same way that when one imitates Nature in a well-designed head, one renders the colour, the delicacy of the eyes, of the mouth, the brilliancy and effect of the hair, so even on good sculpture can admiration be exacted, as has been proved by the enthusiasm of those who have seen the works which I have painted in ‘mat.’ The fact is so public that I need not insist on it.” Pacheco, in another passage of equal illumination, also speaks of the beauty of the art of damasking, giving a careful and full account of the process:--