In Castile. 495 night, he practised the lesson with pencil and brush. Not till he was forty -five years old, did he think himself sufficiently skilful to reveal the secret so long kept. He then placed a picture which he had done amongst those of Velazquez, which he knew Philip IV. would look out, and thereby gained his freedom. Juan Bautista Martinez del Mazo (1620 ?— 1687), the son-in-law of Velazquez, was one of his most skilful pupils. He was especially celebrated for his power of imitation : Palomino relates that copies of Titian, Tintoretto and Paolo Veronese, which Mazo made in his youth, were sent into Italy, where they were, doubtless, admitted for originals. Mazo succeeded especially in copying the works of his master. Claudio Coello (ab. 1635 — 1693) was in the Castilian school what Carlo Maratti had been in the Roman, " the last of the old masters." His father, a sculptor in bronze, intended his son for the same profession, but Coello developed a decided talent for painting ; he improved his style by studying the works of Titian, Rubens and other great masters in the royal galleries. His masterpiece, which occupied him more than two years, is still in the Escorial : it represents the Collocation of the Hod (el Cuadro de la Forma), and contains the portraits of Charles II. and many of his courtiers. Juan de Alfaro y Gamez (1640 — 1680) studied first under Antonio del Castillo, but subsequently with Velaz- quez, in whose school he greatly improved his colouring. Alfaro is said to have been absurdly vain. It is related of him by Palomino, that being employed to paint scenes from the Life of S. Francis for the cloister of the con- vent to that saint, he copied his subjects from prints and
