and the graceful and dignified taste of the Italian schools.
MURILLO'S WORKS.
The works of Murillo are numerous, and widely
scattered over the world. Most of his greatest
works are in the churches of Spain; some are in
the Royal collections at Madrid, some in France
and Flanders, many in England, and a few in the
United States. They now command enormous prices.
The National Gallery of London paid four
thousand guineas for a picture of the Holy Family,
and two thousand for one of St. John with the
Lamb. The late Marshal Soult's collection was
very rich in Murillos—the fruits of his campaigns in
Spain. The famous Assumption of the Virgin,
considered the chef d'œuvre of the master, brought
the enormous sum of five hundred and eighty-six
thousand francs, and was bought by the French
government to adorn the Louvre; but it should be
recollected that the heads of three governments—those
of France, Russia, and Spain—and an English
Marquis, competed for it. Such works, too, are
esteemed above all price, as models of art, in a national
collection of pictures. Of the other Murillos
in the Soult collection, the principal brought the
following prices: "The Ravages of the Plague,"
twenty thousand francs; "The Miracle of St. Diego,"
eighty-five thousand francs; "The Flight into
Egypt," fifty-one thousand francs; "The Nativity
