The following painters may be mentioned among the best and most characteristic of the second class in the Spanish school: FRANCISCO DE ZURBARAN, born in Estremadura in 1598, died at Madrid 1662, was essentially a religious painter, and his somber coloring and the subjects of his pictures are characteristic of Spanish bigotry and of the Inquisition. In Spain he is chiefly known by his altar-pieces for churches and convents; out of Spain by his monks and friars. A few figures of female saints prove that he was not insensible to grace of form and beauty of color. But he is usually mannered, and without dignity. A disagreeable reddish hue pervades his larger pictures. He formed himself, like his contemporaries, on the study of the Italian painters of the Naturalistic school. Philip IV. is said to have named him “Painter of the King, and King of Painters.” He enjoyed the first title, but did not merit the second. His best work in Spain is, perhaps, the “Apotheosis of St. Thomas Aquinas,” in the Seville Museum. It is a grand, but somewhat stiff and unpleasing composition. Zurbaran is badly represented in the Madrid Gallery. The “Christ Sleeping on the Cross” is the most popular in it. One or two of his works are to be found in the Academy of San Fernando. ALONSO CANO (born at Granada, 1601; died there, 1667) enjoys the highest reputation in Spain after Zurbaran. He was painter, sculptor, and architect, and, moreover, carved and painted wooden figures of the Virgin and Saints, an art in which he attained great success and renown. Many examples of his skill may be seen at Granada. One of the most celebrated is the statuette of St. Francis in the sacristy of the Cathedral of Toledo. Cano was a violent, but not unkindly man, constantly engaged in quarrels and lawsuits. He ended by becoming a canon of the Cathedral of Granada, after narrowly escaping from the clutches of the Inquisition. His drawing is carefully studied, but is frequently exaggerated, and wants ease and flow; his coloring conventional and somewhat weak; but there is a delicacy of expression and refinement in his works which have earned him the praise of some critics. The Madrid Gallery contains a few of his pictures: among them a “Dead Christ”; but he is best seen at Granada.