Nearly all his pictures were of religious subjects, and on this account he was called "the divine." He avoided ghastly, painful pictures, and was one of the most spiritual of the artists of Spain. Very few of his pictures are seen out of Spain, and they are rare even there. His masterpiece is "Christ Crowned with Thorns," in the Queen of Spain's Gallery at Madrid. In the Louvre is his "Christ Bearing the Cross." At the sale of the Soult collection his "Way to Calvary" sold for nine hundred and eighty pounds sterling.
ALONSO SANCHEZ COELLO (about 1515-1590) was the first great portrait painter of Spain. He was painter-in-ordinary to Philip II., and that monarch was so fond of him that in his letters he called him "my beloved son." At Madrid the king had a key to a private entrance to the apartments of Coello, so that he could surprise the painter in his studio, and at times even entered the family rooms of the artist. Coello never abused the confidence of Philip, and was a favorite of the court as well as of the monarch. Among his friends were the Popes Gregory XIII. and Sixtus V., the Cardinal Alexander Farnese, and the Dukes of Florence and Savoy. Many noble and even royal persons were accustomed to visit him and accept his hospitality. He was obliged to live in style becoming his position, and yet when he died he left a fortune of fifty-five thousand ducats. He had lived in Lisbon, and Philip sometimes called him his "Portuguese Titian."
Very few of his portraits remain; they are graceful in pose and fine in color. He knew how to represent the repose and refinement of "gentle blood and delicate nurture." Many of his works were burned in the Prado. His "Marriage of St. Catherine" is in the Gallery of Madrid. A "St. Sebastian" painted for the Church of St. Jerome, at Madrid, is considered his masterpiece. Lope de Vega wrote Coello's epitaph, and called his pictures
"Eternal scenes of history divine, Wherein for aye his memory shall shine."
JUAN FERNANDEZ NAVARRETE (1526-1579), called El Mudo, because deaf and dumb, is a very interesting painter. He was not born a mute, but became deaf at three years of age, and could not learn to speak. He studied some years in Italy, and was in the school of Titian. In 1568 he was appointed painter to Philip II. His principal works were eight pictures for the Escorial, three of which were burned. His picture of the "Nativity" is celebrated for its lights, of which there are three; one is from the Divine Babe, a second from the glory above, and a third from a torch in the hand of St. Joseph. The group of shepherds is the best part of the picture, and when Tibaldi saw the picture he exclaimed, "O! gli belli pastori!" and it has since been known as the "Beautiful Shepherds."
