Luis, surnamed El Divino, from his character as a painter of sacred subjects, was born at Badajos in 1509. He made himself a proficient in his art by visiting the principal cities in Spain, and studying carefully the works of the different masters. His pictures of the "Saviour" and of "Magdalene" became especially famous for their faithful representation of intense bodily suffering blended with serene meekness. Morales was dragging out his old age in severe poverty, when Philip II, passing through Badajos in 1581, sought him out, and conferred upon him a pension of 300 ducats. He died at his native city in 1586. The masterpiece of Morales is his picture of "St Veronica," in the church of the Bare-footed Trinitarians in Madrid.