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THE FLAGELLATION

MURILLO.

JESUS, tied to a pillar, has just undergone the punishment of flagellation.

St. Peter, kneeling before our Saviour, appears to participate in his sufferings, or to solicit pardon for having denied him when he was betrayed to Pontius Pilate. This little picture of Murillo, a Spanish painter of considerable eminence, is correct and brilliant in point of colouring. The figures, the drawing of which is by no means excellent, detach themselves from a back-ground, painted with infinite vigour.

The Spanish school of painting is that of which the least has been written. It is, nevertheless, very numerous, and embraces many artists of very extraordinary merit. In general they appear to have taken their models from each other, to have attended more to colouring than to precision, and beauty of form and dignity of character. "Philip II." says Mengs,

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appears to have given greater encouragement to the arts than any of his predecessors. He built the magnificent palace of the Escurial, and very liberally recompensed the artists employed upon it. But as this prince had not the power to alter the manners of his subjects, nor the constitution of the state, the love of the arts remained concentrated in his person, without his being able to communicate it even to the nobility, who were continually occupied with the warfare and the riches of the New World."

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