BARTOLOME ESTEBAN MURILLO (1618-1682) When the Spanish artist Murillo was a young painter he was very poor and hardly knew where to get enough to eat. He would go to the market-place and set up his easel and rapidly paint the scenes around him. The people who came to the market to buy and sell saw these pictures and bought them for a mere pittance. Often beggar boys, who were everywhere in the market snatching fruits and other eatables from the stalls, would pose for him as they hid in some corner to eat their stolen dainties. These beggar-boy pictures that Murillo sold for a song to keep his soul and body together began to attract attention until finally they were looked upon as the greatest pictures Murillo ever painted. People outside of Spain, Murillo's native country, bought them until to-day scarcely a beggar-boy picture of his is found in Spain. This picture of "The Melon Eaters" is known far and wide as a great masterpiece, and yet the boys were little rag-a-muffins, the pests of the market people. Murillo knew the joys and sorrows of those boys because he too at that time was very poor and hungry and no one was giving him a helping hand. Do you suppose that when he was famous as a painter he ever saw those boys? I think so, for he was greatly beloved by his townspeople of Seville. They probably came to his studio many times. Murillo painted many religious pictures for the churches of Seville. [Illustration: Courtesy of Pratt Institute FIG. 17. THE MELON EATERS. MURILLO. PINAKOTHEK, MUNICH] THE MUSES GIULIO ROMANO (1492-1546) I am sure you have heard of the Muses. Romano, a pupil of Raphael's, has left us this beautiful picture of them dancing with Apollo, their cousin. The Muses were the daughters of Zeus (Jove or Jupiter), and Memory. These lovely girls also come to every home to help care for the new baby. The Greek names of the Muses are rather hard to pronounce, but you will want to call them by name. Then, too, each girl's name in Greek letters is just below where she dances. Now begin at the left of the circle. The first one, Calliope, stands for narrative poetry; No. 2, Clio, is history; No. 3, Erato, is love-poetry; No. 4, Melpomene, is tragedy; No. 5, Terpsichore, is dance and song. Now comes Apollo with his quiver full of arrows. He is the god of the hunt and twin brother to Diana, the goddess of hunt; also he is god of music and poetry. No. 6 is Polyhymnia, muse of hymn-music; No. 7, Euterpe, is song poetry; No. 8, Thalia, is comedy, and No. 9, Urania, muse of astronomy.