These Spanish painters contended in 1689 for the office of Master of the
Works in the Cathedral of Granada. Bocanegra was excessively vain and
overbearing, and boasted his superiority to all the artists of his time;
but Ardemans, though a stranger in Granada, was not to be daunted, and a
trial of skill, "a duel with pencils," was accordingly arranged between
them, which was, that each should paint the other's portrait. Ardemans,
who was then hardly twenty-five years of age, first entered the lists,
and without drawing any outline on the canvas, produced an excellent
likeness of his adversary in less than an hour. Bocanegra, quite daunted
by this feat, and discouraged by the applause accorded to his rival by
the numerous spectators, put off his own exhibition till another day,
and in the end utterly failed in his attempt to transfer the features of
his rival to canvas. His defeat, and the jeers of his former admirers,
so overwhelmed him with mortification, that he died shortly after.