Philip welcomed his artist back with new favors, appointing him to the post of Aposentador Mayor, whose duty it was to superintend the arrangements for the King’s lodging during his excursions to the country. It was a means of keeping his friend with him, though it must have seriously interfered with the work of the artist. An influence of the first Italian visit may be traced in the large decorative canvases which characterise the middle period. Olivares had presented his palace of Buen Retiro to the King, and the latter employed Velasquez and other painters to embellish it. Hence followed the equestrian portraits of _Don Baltasar Carlos_, _Olivares_ and _Philip_ himself, and the historical picture, _The Surrender of Breda_. In addition, this period produced the _Christ at the Pillar_ (National Gallery) and the Prado portraits of _Philip IV as a Sportsman_, _Don Baltasar Carlos as a Sportsman_, _Don Fernando de Austria as a Sportsman_, _The Sculptor Montañéz_, and the portraits of dwarfs and actors, among the latter the so-called _Don Juan de Austria_ (p. 100). Velasquez started on his second visit to Italy in June 1649, and returned to Madrid in the summer of 1651. It was on this occasion that he painted the portrait of _Innocent X_, which is now in the Doria Gallery in Rome. On his return home the King made him Marshal of the Palace, which entailed upon him the onerous duties of arranging court festivities. These, too, had encreased in frequency and pomp owing to the King’s second marriage; this time with his niece, Mariana of Austria, a girl of fourteen. Notwithstanding such interruptions Velasquez produced during these last nine years of his life some of his finest works and his masterpiece, _Las Meniñas_ (_The Maids of Honor_). Among the other canvases are _S. Anthony Visiting S. Paul_; _Las Hilanderas_ (_The Weavers_); _Portrait of Queen Mariana_ (p. 119); _Portrait of Doña Maria Teresa_ (or _Margarita Maria_); _La Infanta Doña Margarita Maria_, of the Louvre; _Philip IV Old_ (p. 92) and the _Venus_ (National Gallery); _Æsopus_, _Moenippus_, _The God Mars_, The Dwarf called _Antonio El Inglese_, and the actor _Cristobal de Pernía, called Barbarroja_. All the above, except those otherwise specified, are in the Prado. In June, 1660, the marriage, which had been arranged by Cardinal Mazarin between the young Louis XIV and Philip’s daughter, María Teresa, was celebrated upon the Isle of Pheasants, in the little river which separates Spain and France on the West of the Pyrenees. The weight of the burden of preparation and supervision fell upon the Marshal of the Palace, and proved more than Velasquez could sustain. He broke down at the end of the ceremony and, returning to Madrid, died a few weeks later, August 6, 1660. His wife survived him only seven days. * * * * *