INTRODUCTION     

Rosemarie Mulcahy Honorary Senior Fellow in the Department of the History of Art, UCD (1997-2002) has been researching art during the reign of Phillip II for over 25 years. She has published in the Burlington Magazine, Apollo and Archivo Español de Arte and is the author of Spanish Paintings in the National Gallery of Ireland, The Decoration of the Royal Basilica of El Escorial and Navarrete ‘el Mudo’, pintor de Felipe II. She is an Honorary Associate of the Hispanic Society of America and an Honorary member of the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA). In 2002 she was awarded the Cross of the Order of Isabel la Católica by King Juan Carlos in recognition of her contribution to the history of Spanish art.