In painting and music, as well as in literature, Peru has an honored place among American nations, though it is generally the fashion in Peru, as in the United States, to maintain that only in Europe are great masterpieces painted, and that home talent cannot achieve the results possible in the “atmosphere” of the art centres of Paris, London, and Rome. Many of Peru’s greatest artists have their permanent place of residence abroad, and in the art exhibitions, their names appear among those of the most successful painters. This was true half a century ago, when one of the greatest painters of his day was a Peruvian, Don Ignacio Merino, born in Piura and sent to Paris to study art under Monvoisin and Delacroix. In the years 1869 and 1870 he won the highest honors of the Salon, his famous work, _Columbus before the University of Salamanca_, being among the noted modern masterpieces. _The Vengeance of Cornaro_, _Felipe II. Dying_, _The Friar Painter_, and _Cervantes Reading Quixote_ are well known to connoisseurs and possess superior merit. The illustrious painter died in Paris and was buried in Père la Chaise. He bequeathed his paintings to the city of Lima and they are now in the gallery of the Historical Museum. In the museum also hangs the masterpiece of Luis Montero, another Piura artist, who was educated in Italy and studied under Fortuny. It is entitled _The Funeral of Atahuallpa_ and is notable for the contrasts of stillness and movement, though the Indians are too dark in color and the women too European in type to give a faithful idea of the subject. In the gallery of the museum are historical paintings by Francisco Esteban de Ingunza and other noted Peruvian artists.