The results of such efforts were those historical pictures which at the Paris World Exhibition of 1878, the Munich International Exhibition of 1883, and at every large exhibition since have been so exceedingly refreshing to all admirers of the illustration of history upon ground that was genuinely Spanish. At the Paris World Exhibition of 1878 _Pradilla's_ "Joan the Mad" received the large gold medal, and was, indeed, a good picture in the manner of Laurens. Philip the Fair is dead. The funeral train, paying him the last honours, has come to a halt upon a high-road, and the unhappy princess rushes up with floating hair and staring eyes fixed upon the bier which hides the remains of her husband. The priests and women kneeling around regard the unfortunate mad woman with mournful pity. To the right the members of the Court are grouped near a little chapel where a priest is celebrating a mass for the dead; to the left the peasantry are crowding round to witness the ceremony. Great wax candles are burning, and the chapel is lit up with the sombre glow of torches. This was all exceedingly well painted, carefully balanced in composition, and graceful in drawing. At the Munich Exhibition of 1883 he received a gold medal for his "Surrender of Granada, 1492," a picture which made a great impression at the time upon the German historical painters, as Pradilla had made a transition from the brown bituminous painting of Laurens to a "modern" painting in grey, which did more justice to the illumination of objects beneath the open sky. In the same year _Casado's_ large painting, "The Bells of Huesca," with the ground streaming with blood, fifteen decapitated bodies, and as many bodiless heads, was a creation which was widely admired. _Vera_ had exhibited his picture, filled with wild fire and pathos, "The Defence of Numantia," and _Manuel Ramirez_ his "Execution of Don Alvaro de Luna," with the pallid head which has rolled from the steps and stares at the spectator in such a ghastly manner. In his "Conversion of the Duke of Gandia," _Moreno Carbonero_ displayed an open coffin _à la_ Laurens: as Grand Equerry to the Empress Isabella at the Court of Charles V, the Duke of Gandia, after the death of his mistress, has to superintend the burial of her corpse in the vault at Granada, and as the coffin is opened there, to confirm the identity of the person, the distorted features of the dead make such a powerful impression upon the careless noble that he takes a vow to devote himself to God. _Ricardo Villodas_ in his picture "Victoribus Gloria" represents the beginning of one of those sea-battles which Augustus made gladiators fight for the amusement of the Roman people. By _Antonio Casanova y Estorach_ there was a picture of King Ferdinand the Holy, who upon Maundy Thursday is washing the feet of eleven poor old men and giving them food. And a special sensation was made by the great ghost picture of _Benliure y