Andalusia, a region which has come in more recent times to be regarded as the cradle of Spanish artists, produced at this time not a few painters. The work, _Saint Michael_, of the master Bartolomé de Cárdenas, which was exhibited at the Royal Academy, pertains to this rich and flourishing period, which gave an impetus to the forces then impelling all Spanish life toward the national union which came to pass in the reign of the Catholic kings. Two new centres of activity arose at this epoch, which greatly fostered the rise of Spanish civilisation and favoured the development of pictorial art--two cities glorious and historical in Spain--Toledo and Salamanca. Side by side with this budding art--which was in a certain sense inspired by the schools of the north, but nevertheless began to display a national tendency--a few isolated artists, either by preference or training, still retained the Italian style. We recall the _Santa Catalina_ of Hernando Yáñez de la Almedina (Plate I.), shown at the exhibition, a work which has not been sufficiently appreciated and must be regarded as a beautiful example of that period. Arising at the close of the epoch of national unity, the House of Austria, in the person of its most exalted representative, the Emperor Charles V, commenced to govern the destinies of Spain. The victorious expansion of Spanish arms, both in the Old World and the New, during the first half of the sixteenth century, had but little influence upon artistic effort, and none of the Spanish painters of this period are regarded as the equals of their Italian, Flemish, German or Dutch contemporaries. And our artists, at a time when the entire national fortunes were hazarded in campaign after campaign, had enough to do to maintain an epoch of gestation, to comprehend the laws and trace the spiritual current of the Renaissance which now dawned upon the world of culture. This great movement failed also to take a national direction with Spanish artists, and the few books and treatises on art printed in Spain during this period are poor in conception and lacking in information.