Contrast between the Academicians and Naturalists, and between the French and Spanish Schools of Painting.--Peculiarities of each.--Ladies of Rank in Madrid Pupils of Velasquez.--Instruction of the royal Children in Art.--The Engraver of Madrid.--Every City in the South of Spain boasts a female Artist.--Isabella Coello.--Others in Granada.--In Cordova.--The Sculptress of Seville.--Luisa Roldan; her Carvings in Wood.--The Canons “sold.”--Invitation to Madrid.--Sculptress to the King.--Other Women Artists in Spain.--In France Woman’s Position more prominent than in preceding Age.--Corruption of court Manners.--Unworthy Women in Power.--Women in every Department of Literature.--Mademoiselle de Scudery.--Madame de la Fayette.--Madame Dacier.--Women in theological Pursuits.--Their Ascendency in Art not so great.--Miniature and Flower Painters.--Engravers.--Elizabeth Sophie Chéron.--A Leader in Enamel-painting.--Her Portraits and History-pieces.--Her Merits and Success.--Her Translations of the Psalms.--Musical and Poetical Talents.--Honors lavished on her.--Love and Marriage at three-score.--Her Generosity to the needy.--Verses in her Praise.--Historical Tableaux.--Madelaine Masson.--The Marchioness de Pompadour. Striking contrasts belong to the history of art in the seventeenth century. A moral, religious, and artistic contrast existed between the academicians and the naturalists; and one as remarkable may be noticed between the French and Spanish schools of painting, corresponding, in fact, to the civil struggle between the two nations for European supremacy. In Spain the enthusiasm for art harmonized with the passionate character of the people; in France, discretion and intellectual taste predominated. The sensuous and rudely natural in Spanish art was combined with the warmest glow of religious feeling. Velasquez, a son of Andalusia, had a number of scholars in Madrid among ladies of high rank. Donna Maria de Abarca and the Countess of Vill’ Ambrosa were celebrated for their skill in taking likenesses, and were highly praised by the poets. The Duchess of Bejar, Teresa Sarmiento, and Maria de Guadalupe, Duchess of Aveiro--also an accomplished linguist and lover of letters--had considerable celebrity as painters. The admiration of Philip IV. for art rendered the instruction therein of the royal children and those of the nobility a necessary branch of education. The Duchess of Alba, celebrated for her beauty and intrigues, gave one of Raphael’s master-pieces as a fee to the family physician, who had cured her of a dangerous illness. Maria Eugenia de Beer was an engraver in Madrid, and we may find in the choir-books of the cathedral at Tarragona creditable specimens of the talent of the painter Angelica, who painted the illuminations with great neatness and skill.