Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-11-24

Neroneses ........... % TintorettoS -
Giordanos ......... 30 Gouvermans ........ II
Claudes ............ 10 Riberas ............. 81
There is no doubt about the genuineness
of all these pictures, for most of them were
painted expressly for the Spanish kings
When this gallery was founded in IT'S;
there were 1900 or more pictures of the
early Italian, Spanish, Dutch and Flemish
schools scattered among the various pal
aces belonging to the crown.
But you can see other artists elsewhere
Velasquez and Murillo can only be seer
properly in Spain, in the atmosphere ir
which they lived and worked, and you are
amazed at their industry. Many of the
works of Rubens found on these walls were
painted in Madrid, where, curiously enough
he was ambassador from England from
1916 to 1923. 1t was then that he produced
the portraits of the Spanish Philips and
their families.
Velasquez and Rubens.
There is a remarkable contrast between
the pictures of Velasquez and those of Ru-
bens. The latter is always gorgeous in his
colorings and voluptuous in his sensations
and daubs on the paint with heavy brushes.
His Imagination runs riot. Velasquez is
the reverse. Everything about his work is
simple, earnest, genuine and sincere. He
had free touch, but was always natural
always accurate, and his effects are pro-
duced by the simplest means. His faces are
portraits, not ideals. His animals are ami
mails as you see them in the fields and
stables of Spain. His details are perfect
and there Is no claptrap of dramatic eff
fects. All his accessories-his armor, his
drapery, his foliage-are as carefully and
as accurately produced as if each time he
We're drawing likeness.
There is nothing horrible, i nothing gro
tesque, nothing shocking about the pictures
of Velasquez, and we know by those evil
dences that he was man of tender heart
and amiable disposition and that he loved
nature and his fellow men, notwithstand-
ing the fact that he spent much time at
court. He was not only the official painter,
but held an official position at court for
many years. He was sort of superin-
tendent of the palace under Philip ", who
was a generous patron of art and painted
very well himself. ag'--s--
1t is good evidence of the sterling charac-
ter of Velasquez that he did so much good
work amidst the dissipated and idle inf1u-
ences by which he was surrounded, and we
cannot help thinking that he might have
been greater and might have done more but
for the other duties that were required OF
him. He married early and had lovely
and loyal wife. Her father, Francisco
Pacheco, was the great authority on art in
those days and one of the ablest writer's
on art subjects that ever lived. He was a
man of high principle and exemplary life,
and perhaps We owe to him much of the
good. that has come down to us from his
Murillo.
Murillo, who stands second in Spanish art,
was pupil of Velasquez and they were in
innate friends, Murillo being seventeen
years the younger. But they are very diff
ferent Murillo was more conventional,
more religious in his tendencies, and more
graceful in the poses of his subjects. He
Is not so bold or vigorous as VelasqueZ,
$50
He had more Imagination than Velasquez,
bat was not SO accurate nor so true to
nature
Murillo spent three years with Velasquez
at Madrid, but it was his only visit, and
so far as / can ascertain 1t was the only
time he ever left Seville, where he was
born, and where his pictures were sold in
the market place before he was twelve
years old. The converts and churches of
Seville and other Spanish cities were filled
with his pictures, bought as fast as they
were produced. although the prices paid
seem absurd in these days. For several OF
his finest altar pieces he received not more
than one or two hundred dollars, but today
no one is rich enough to buy them, and no
one is so poor as to sell canvas that the
brush of Murillo has touched.
Fine Private Galleries.
There are several fine private galleries in
Madrid and the owners are generous In
Duke of Medina-Celi, young man who has
recently inherited one of the largest es-
tates In Spain upon the accidental death of
his father. has an excellent collection, in
Guiding several ancestral portraits by We
lasuuez ard Murillo. The Duke of Alva,
whose fat.-er died at the Holland House
in New York few years ago, and whose
mother was sister of the Empress Eugene
of France has the finest private residence
in Madrid and one of the finest in Europe.
He has a splendid gallery full of gems,
and his library is well worth seeing. His
mother Is a woman of literary taste, and
has published several volumes of her own.
The Duke of Osuna, the Duke of Uceda,
the Duke of Pastrana, the Marquis of Willie
franca, Senior Carderera and others have
splendid collections OF prints as we'll as
paintings, collected by their ancestors and
kept intact, for the Spanish nobility have
not sold their household treasures like the
Italian princes. They place higher value
on heirooms, and particularly upon books
and works of art. Some of the largest and
most valuable private libraries of the whole
world are found in Madrid and other Span
ish cities, and while several of the owners
have suffered poverty for generations they
will not part with their pictures or their
books.
Kept the Columbus Letters.
This is especially true of our friend, the
Duke of Veragua, the descendant of Co
lumbus, who was the guest of the nation
during the Chicago exposition. He has
been bankrupt for several years, having
not only lost his fortune but involved
himself deeply in debt by engaging In
Improbable enterprises But through all
his poverty, deprived or luXurfes and
even comforts, he could never have been
induced to part with book or picture
or an autograph of Columbus, although
he has more than forty letters written by
his distinguished ancestor. The govern
ment would have purchased them for a
large price, but. pride to a Spaniard is
more than riches.
The duke is again in mourning for his
beloved wife, a woman of great attrac-
tions and intellect, as all who met her in
Chicago will remember. She was admired
on both continents fer her beauty and
her lovely character. Her daughter Sc
norita Pillar, married the Marquis Aguilar
Fuente, a welI-to-do young man with an
old title, and they are now living in Mad
rid The son, Cristovaf Colon, who Is
twenty three years old, acts as secretary
for his father The duke can go to the