Women Artists in Spain.--Their Participation a Test of general Interest.--Female Representatives of the most important Schools.--That of Seville.--Of Madrid.--The Paintress of Don Quixote.--Ladies of Rank Members of the Academy.--Maria Tibaldi.--Two female Artists besides two Poetesses in Portugal.--The Harvest greater in Italy.--Few attained to Eminence.--Learned Ladies.--Female Doctors and Professors.--Degrees in Jurisprudence and Philosophy conferred on them.--Examples.--The Scholar nine Years old.--A lady Professor of Mathematics.--Women Lecturers.--Comparison with English Ladies.--Brilliant Devotees of the Lyre.--Female Talent in the important Schools of Art.--Women Artists in Florence.--Engravers and Paintresses.--In Naples.--Kitchen-pieces.--In the Cities of northern Italy.--In Bologna.--Princesses.--In Venice.--Rosalba Carriera.--Her childish Work.--Her Genius perceived.--Instruction.--Takes to Pastel-painting.--Merits of her Works.--Celebrity.--Invitations to Paris and Vienna.--Visit from the King of Denmark.--Invited by the Emperor and the King of France.--Portrait for the Grand Duke of Tuscany.--The King of Poland her Patron.--Unspoiled by Honors.--Her moral Worth.--Residence in Paris.--Her Pictures.--The Lady disguised as a Maid-servant.--Want of Beauty.--Anecdote of the Emperor.--Rosalba’s Journal.--Visit to Vienna.--Presentiment of Calamity.--The Portrait wreathed with gloomy Leaves.--Blindness.--Loss of Reason.--Death and Burial.--Her Portrait.--Other Venetian Women. A glance at the women artists of the romantic South will close this general survey of the eighteenth century. In Spain we find few worthy of mention. Since the commencement of the Bourbon dynasty interest in art had ceased to be the essential element in the national life that it had been under the sway of the house of Hapsburg throughout the seventeenth century. And in the Peninsula the truth was made apparent that the participation of women is a test and measure of the general interest in the studies and products of art prevailing among any people. The most important schools, however, were not entirely without female representatives. Linked with that of Seville, we hear the name of the portrait-painter, Maria de Valdes Leal; her father and tutor, Don Juan de Valdes, after the death of Murillo, was regarded as the first living master of this school.