Artist. Pictures. Where Situated. Murillo Angel de la Guarda. Sacristía de los (1617-1682). Cálices. " SS. Leander and Sacristía Mayor. Isidore. " Conception. Sala Capitular. " St. Anthony of Cap del Bautisterio. Padua. " Moses striking the Hospital de la Rock. Caridad. " Miracle of the Ditto. Loaves and Fishes. " Charity of St. Juan Ditto. de Dios. " Seventeen works Museo. from the Capuchin Convent, and other works. Other Pictures in many of the Churches. CHAPTER X _The Pictures in the Museo_ 'The office of art is to educate the perception of beauty.' EMERSON. In the south-western quarter of Seville, in the midst of a palm-shaded _plaza_, stands the Museo Provincial, a picturesque structure, whose history dates back to the thirteenth century. It was originally a monastery, founded by the pious San Fernando, in the year 1249, for the monks of the order of the Merced, whose duty it was to redeem the Christian captives taken from the Infidel. Sumptuously rebuilt by Carlos V., it was a religious house of great wealth during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Little of the former glory now remains. The convent was destroyed, and the monks expelled in the year 1835. New uses were found for the ancient edifice. The Roman and Visigothic relics were brought from Italica, and stored within the quiet cloisters. Numerous pictures, rescued from the convents and churches by the efforts of Dean Manuel López Cepero, were hung upon the walls of the old convent church. The sole relic of the banished order of the Merceds are the emblazoned arms of the brotherhood, which may still be seen upon the rich and curiously-panelled doors. The majority of the pictures hang in the Salón de Murillo, the name now given to the convent church. The collection cannot be taken as representative of the genius of Seville. There are numerous examples of the work of Murillo, more than half of the room is occupied by the canvases of the Sevillian favourite. There are some fine instances of the work of Zurbaran. The elder Herrera and Valdés Leal are also well represented. But there are only two specimens of Luis de Vargas and Juan de las Roelas, while the works of Velazquez, Alonso Cano, Nuñez, Campaña and several other artists are entirely absent. The space which the compositions of these masters might have occupied is filled with comparatively worthless pictures, painted by the decadent artists, who lived during the eighteenth century.