n'y a que quinze ans que cela est arrivé, mais l'homme est mort depuis peu."--_Journal du Voyage en Espagne_, p. 203. [Illustration: XXVIII DETAIL OF CHOIR-STALLS (_León Cathedral_)] It is outside the scope of such a work as this to deal at any length with Spanish figure-sculpture. However, it is only fair to recognize that Spain produced a couple of score or so of admirable carvers of wood-statuary. Among the greatest of these craftsmen or _imagineros_ were Becerra, Berruguete, Juan de Juni, author of the _Mater Dolorosa_ ("Our Lady of the Knives"), of Valladolid; Gregorio Hernández the Galician, author of "Simon the Cyrenian," "Santa Veronica," and "the Baptism of our Lord"; Martínez Montañes, author of "San Jerónimo" and of the "Cristo del Gran Poder";[49] Solis, Gaspar de Ribas, Juan Gómez, author of the "Jesus" of Puerto de Santa Maria; Pedro Roldan, with whom, according to Tubino, "the art of Seville closed its eyes"; and Alonso Cano, master of Pedro and Alonso de Mena, Ruiz del Peral, José de Mora, and Diego de Mora, and who carved the exquisite "Elijah Sleeping" (Pl. xxi.) now at Toledo, and also (as it is believed) the famous statuette (Frontispiece to the present volume) of Saint Francis of Assisi. [49] It is due to Martínez Montañes to mention that in many of his contracts he stipulated that the painters of his statuary should be chosen by himself, "so as not to corrupt the outline and the sentiment of the figures." [Illustration: XXIX CHOIR-STALLS (_Plasencia Cathedral_)] The earliest centre of this branch of wood-carving was Valladolid, where lived and laboured Juni and Hernández. Nevertheless, although so popular in every part of Spain, it had a short-lived prime, originating in the two Castiles towards the reign of Philip the Second, declining steadily (with Seville for its centre now) all through the seventeenth century, and flickering out, despite the perseverance and the genius of the Murcian Susillo, in the century succeeding.