Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (Seville, 1617 – April 3, 1682) was an Andalusian painter from the 17th century. Formed in late naturalism, he evolved into Baroque-style formulas full of sensitivity that Rococo sometimes anticipates in some of the His most peculiar and imitated iconographic creations. He is best known for his religious works, Murillo also produced a considerable number of paintings of contemporary women and children. Bartolomé Esteban Murillo was Central personality of the Seville school, with a large number of disciples and followers that led to their influence until well into the eighteenth century, was also The best known and most appreciated Spanish painter outside of Spain.

Possibly it was born the last days of the year 1617 because it was baptized in the parish of Santa María Magdalena de Sevilla on January 1, 1618. He was the youngest son of a family of fourteen brothers. His father, Gaspar Esteban, was A barber surgeon who was sometimes treated as a bachelor, and his mother was called María Pérez Murillo, who took the surname to sign his work When his parents died when he was only 10 years old, he was Under the guardianship of one of his elder sisters, Ana, married to a barber surgeon named Juan Agustín de Lagares Bartholomew, would stay very well with the couple, because he was not moved from his home until his marriage, In 1656, already widower, his brother-in-law appointed him testamentary executor

In 1645 Murillo married Beatriz Cabrera, the daughter of a family of silvermen, with whom he had at least nine children, of whom only five – the smallest of fifteen days – survived the mother, who died on 31 December 1663 Only one of the children, Gabriel (1655-1700), seems to have followed the father’s office for whom, if we believe in Palomino, he was a subject of good qualities and “greatest hopes” Gabriel left in the Indians in 1678, Almost not fulfilled the twenty years, where he got to be Corregidor de Naturales, of Ubaque (Colombia),

There is hardly any documentary news about Murillo’s first years of life and his training as a painter. He said that in 1633, when he was fifteen, he applied for a license to travel to America with some relatives. According to the custom of the time , During these years or a little earlier, he should start his artistic training. Although there is no document, it is very possible that he was trained in the workshop of his relative, Juan del Castillo, as Antonio Palomino said, a respected artist from Seville, and Where Murillo soon began to stand out from among the disciples. The influence of Castillo is clearly seen in what, probably, are the earliest preserved works of Murillo, whose execution dates could correspond around 1638- 1640: Our Lady delivering the rosary in Santo Domingo (Seville, Archbishop’s Palace and the old collection of the Count of Toreno) and La Mare de Déu with f. Lauteri, San Francisco de Asís and Santo Tomàs de Aq Uino (Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum), with a colorful and colorful drawing

According to Palomino, leaving the workshop of Juan del Castillo, Murillo was sufficiently qualified to “keep painting at the fair (that then prevailed a lot), and made a game of paintings to load to the Indians. Having acquired it by This means a “piece of flow”, he went to Madrid, where, with the protection of Diego Velázquez, his countryman (), he often saw the eminent paintings of Palau “Although it is not unlikely that in his beginnings, as Of other Sevillan painters, painted devotional paintings for the lucrative American commerce, nothing indicates that he traveled to Madrid at those dates, nor was he likely to take the trip to Italy that he attributed to Sandrart. Palomino himself denied this trip , After investigating the question, as he said, with “exact diligence.” In addition to that, the unfounded supposition of a trip to Italy, as thought by the Cordovan, was born from the fact that “foreigners do not want to grant in this art and Laurel of Fame “to any Spaniard, if he has not gone through the customs of Italy: without warning, that Italy has been transferred to Spain in statues, eminent paintings, prints and books; And that the study of nature -with these antecedents- abounds everywhere »Palomino himself, who had come to know him even if he did not treat it, said he had heard other painters who in his early years had” been ” Closed all that time at home, his student for the natural, and that he had acquired his ability in this way. “This artistic ability is the one that, when exhibiting his first public works, painted for the Franciscan convent, made it possible for him He won the respect and admiration of his countrymen, who until that moment nothing knew of their existence and progress in the art. In any case, the style that is manifested in his first major works, such as those cited Paintings from the small cloister of the convent of San Francisco, he could learn it without leaving Sevilla studying the artists of the previous generation, such as Zurbarán and Francisco Herrera el Vell

Seville was at the beginning of the 17th century the “paradigm of the city”. It showed the monopoly of trade with the Indies and had the Royal Hearing of Seville, several courts of justice, including the Inquisition, the archbishopric, the House of The Hiring of the Indies, the Mint, consulates and customs Although the 130000 inhabitants with which it counted at the end of century XVI had diminished as a result of plague of 1599 and the expulsion of the moriscos, when Murillo was born It continued to be a cosmopolitan city, the most populated in Spain and one of the largest in the European continent. As of 1627, there appeared some symptoms of crisis due to the decline in trade with the Indies, which slowly moved towards Cádiz, The outbreak of the Thirty Years’ War and the separation of Portugal But the most serious problem came with the plague of 1649, with devastating effects, in which the painter could have lost some son. The village The cost was reduced by half, counting about 600,000 deaths, and it was no longer recovered: large urban areas, especially around the popular parishes of the northern zone, were semi-detached and their homes turned into plots

Although the crisis unequally affected the various segments of the population, the general standard of living dwindled. Popular classes, the most affected, starred in 1652 on a short-term mutiny caused by hunger; But, broadly speaking, charity functioned as a palliative of injustice and misery, which affected evenly the beggars that crowded around the episcopal palace to receive the round bread that was distributed by the archbishop, as To the hundreds of “shameful” poor people counted in each parish or in institutions specifically dedicated to their attention. Among these institutions, the Brotherhood of Charity highlighted, revitalized after 1663 by Miguel Mañara, who in 1650 and 1651 had acted as godfather of Baptism of two of the children of Murillo The painter was a devout man as evidenced by his admission to the Brotherhood of the Rosary in 1644; In addition, he received the habit of the order of San Francisco in 1662 and was frequently engaged in the distribution of bread organized by the parishes to which he was subsequently attached

Although less affected by the crisis, the Church also noticed its consequences: after 1649 almost no new convents will be established: only two or three until the nineteenth century, in front of the nine convents of barons and one of women who They had been founded since the birth of Murillo until this date. Their seventy convents were undoubtedly more than enough for a city that had seen its population drastically diminish; But the absence of new conventual foundations did not end the demand for works of art, because temples and monasteries did not stop enriching themselves artistically by their own means or by donations of wealthy individuals, such as the same Mañara

Trade with the Indies, although it did not generate an industrial network, continued to provide work to weavers, booksellers and artists Silver buyers, who were responsible for finishing the ingots and taking them to the House of Mint, They were exclusive professionals in Seville; They did not miss the work to the officers of the Mint, at least temporarily, when the fleet arrived at the port. There were also foreign merchants missing from Seville, who made Sevilla a cosmopolitan city. It is estimated that in 1665 The number of foreign residents in Seville was around seven thousand, although of course not all of them were engaged in trade. Some had fully integrated into the city after making a fortune: Justino de Neve, protector of the church of Santa María la Blanca and the Hospital de Venerables, for whom he commissioned Murillo some of his masterpieces, came from one of those families of former Flemish merchants established in the city in the sixteenth century. Others were incorporated into dates More advanced: the Dutchman Josua van Belle and the flamenco Nicolás de Omazur, whom he portrayed Murillo, arrived in the city after 1660. Cultured men, as well as wealthy, had to travel to Seville with portraits and paintings Origin, which would explain the influence, among others, of Bartholomeus van der Helst present in the portraits of Seville. They were also responsible for extending the reputation of Murillo beyond the peninsula; In a singular way, Nicholas of Omazur, whose friendship with the painter led him to commission, at his death, an engraving of the Self-portrait now preserved in the National Gallery of London. This portrait is accompanied by a text Laudatory in Latin, possibly written by him, since besides merchant he was known like poet

In 1645, Murillo painted thirteen paintings for the small cloister of the convent of San Francisco de Sevilla, where he worked from 1645 to 1648. The paintings were scattered after the War of Independence. The series narrates, for a didactic purpose, a few stories Sometimes represented by saints of the Franciscan order, in a special way followers of the Spanish Observance to which the convent was assigned. In the election of their affairs, the emphasis was placed on the exaltation of contemplative life and of the A prayer – represented in San Francisco, built by an angel, from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando and La cuina dels Àngels (Museum of the Louvre) -, the Franciscan joy – exemplified by the San Francisco Solano and the bull (National Heritage , Real Alcázar de Sevilla) -, and the love of neighboring ones, specifically referred to the Holy Dídac of Alcalá giving food to the poor (Real Academia de San Fernando) – With a strong naturalistic accent that follows the Tradition of Zurbarán’s tenebrism, Murillo picked up on this last canvas a complete repertoire of popular types that are portrayed with a calm dignity, carefully arranged in a simple composition that is structured in parallel and cut planes on a black background In the center, around the cauldron, a group of mendicant children stands out, where you can already appreciate the interest shown by the painter for children’s themes, an interest that he will never abandon and which will provide him with a justified reputation

If the series, as a whole, can be explained within the monastic tradition initiated by Francisco Pacheco, the naturalism of some of his pieces and interest in chiaroscuro show an affinity with the work of Francisco de Zurbarán that It could be considered a bit archaic Diego Velázquez and Alonso Cano, of the same generation as the Extremadura master, for years had abandoned the tenebrism The tendency to intense chiaroscuro, however, will be emphasized in some later work, although It is still part of its early production – such as the Last Supper of the church of Santa María la Blanca, dated 1650. But along with this taste for intense and contrasting lighting, in some canvases of The same Franciscan series saw new developments that distanced him from Zurbarán, and would explain the good reception he was commissioned, even if he was modestly paid. For example, the fuzzy celestial illumination that wraps It is the procession of saints who accompany Maria on the cloth that represents The Death of Santa Clara (Dresden, Gemäldegalerie, dated 1646); In the figures of the saints of this work, the sense of beauty with which Murillo is accustomed to portraying the female characters is manifested or the dynamism of the figures that populate the Kitchen of the Angels, depicting the dead foe Francisco d ‘ Alcalá in a state of levitation and angels doing kitchen work. In spite of everything, and next to these successes, it is also possible to notice in the set of the series a certain turpitude in the way of solving the problems of perspective besides the The use of Flemish prints as a source of inspiration It is due largely to the dynamics of angelic figures, taken mainly from the Angelorum series Crispin’s Icons go by the Walk Other sources used, such as Rinaldo and Armida-an engraving Of Pieter de Jode II on a composition by Anton van Dyck made only two years before the commission of the series, show that Murillo could be up to date with the latest paintings

During the years immediately after the terrible impact of the plague of 1649 it is not known that he had a large number of orders, but he demanded a large number of images of devotion, among them some of the most popular works of the painter En These paintings, in the clearing lighting, are distanced from Zurbarán to go in search of greater mobility and emotional intensity, interpreting the sacred themes with a delicate, intimate humanity. The various versions of the Virgin Mary with the ” Infant or the so-called The Virgin of the Rosary with the Infant – among them those of the Castres Museum, the Pitti Palace and the Prado Museum-, the Adoration of the shepherds and the Sagrada Familia of the bird – all two of them Museo del Prado-, the young penitentiary Magdalena -in the National Gallery of Ireland and Madrid, the Arango- collection, or the Escape to Egypt -Detroit Institute of Arts- belong to this period. Also at this time Tackle for pr At the same time, the subject of the Immaculate Conception was called the Grand Conception or the Franciscan Conception (Seville, Museum of Fine Arts), with which he initiated the renovation of his iconography in Seville according to the Ribera model

In the field of profane painting, the Boy Exploiting or Young Mounted, from the Louvre Museum, also belongs to this period, the first known witness of the attention and dedication of the painter to the popular motifs with children’s protagonists. In her, she observes A note of melancholy, of pessimism, when he shows the little camel, taking away the parasites alone, a pessimism that will completely abandon his later and most lively works. Of another category are the reappeared Old Spinner of Stourhead House – Known previously only by a mediocre copy saved at the Prado Museum, and La Vella with a hen and a basket of eggs (Munich, Alte Pinakothek), which belonged to Nicolás de Omazur. These are genres conceived almost as portraits in From the direct, immediate observation, although they also accuse the influence of Flemish painting through the prints by Cornelis Bloemaert

In the seventeenth century, with an archbishop and more than sixty convents, Seville was an important focus of religious culture. In her, popular religiosity, encouraged by ecclesiastical institutions, was manifested sometimes with vehemence. This happened in 1615 when, according to Diego Ortiz de Zúñiga and other chroniclers of the time, the whole city was thrown into the streets to proclaim the “Conception of Mary without original sin”, in response to the sermon of a Dominican father who had expressed a “pious opinion »In relation to the mystery That year and the following ones, between the acts of neglect were celebrated processions and tumultuous celebrations to which they did not lack black and mulatto, and as it were said, if they had allowed it also they would have participated “Moros i Moras” with his own party The plague of 1649 also added that some devotions with such significant titles as those of the Christ of the Good Death or of the Final Good were added, and that they were founded or Re New brotherhoods like the Agonizers, whose purpose was to procure the suffrages brothers and a dignified grave

In this atmosphere of intense religiosity, ecclesiastical clientele constituted only a part, and perhaps not the greatest, of the wide demand for religious works, which would allow explaining the murillesca production of these years for private clients and not In temples or convents In this artistic production, the repetition of motifs and the existence of copies from the workshop are observed, as is the case with Santa Caterina de Alejandría half-hearted, known for several copies, but that the original is At the moment it finds the Focus-Abengoa Foundation in Seville Numerous individuals put their foundation for the provision of churches, convents and chapels; And, moreover, they could not miss in any home, modestly enough, paintings or simple plates of religious themes. A statistical study done on 224 Seville inventories between the years 1600 and 1670, with a total of 5179 paintings outlined, gives The number of 1741 religious cadres held by individuals, that is, just over a third of the total Few more, 1820, corresponded to the profane painting of any genre and the rest 1618 did not determine the reason, but surely many of them “They would also contain a religious affair. As in other places in Spain, the percentage of profane paintings was higher in the collections of the nobility and the clergy, increasing the religious motif painting as it descended on the social scale, To be almost the only genus present in the inventories of farmers and workers in general

In 1655, from Madrid, he arrived in Seville Francisco de Herrera el Joven after a probable stay of some years in Italy Shortly after arriving he painted the Triumph of the Sacrament of the Cathedral of Seville; This work presents the novelty of its great figures located in contraclaror in the foreground and the turning of children angels treated with a fluid and almost transparent brushstroke, as if they were in the tongues. Their influence will be able to be seen immediately in Vision Of Sant Antoni de Padua, a large painting that Murillo painted for the baptismal chapel of the cathedral only one year later. The clear separation of celestial and earthly spaces with a balanced composition and the presence of monumental figures, are features Characteristic of the Sevillian painting that is broken decisively in this work, where the diagonal is strengthened and places the rupture of the glory displaced to the left. The saint, on the right, extends his arms towards the figure of the child
Jesus, who appears isolated on a vividly illuminated background The distance that separates them highlights the intensity of the feelings of the saint and his waiting yearning. The saint stands in an interior space in darkness but open to a gallery; In this way a second focus of intense lighting is created and thus an admirable spatial depth is achieved while avoiding the violent contrast between an illuminated sky and a shadowy earth. With all this, the spaces are unified Through a diffused but vibrant light in which some angels in the foreground are also counterclarant

The same evolution of his painting made possible this rapid assimilation of the novelties introduced by Herrera. They are also from 1655, the pair of cadres of the saint saints Sant Isidor and Sant Leandre finished in the month of August that were placed in The sacristy of the cathedral; The paintings were laid out by the beloved canon Juan Federigui. Considering monumental figures – larger than natural, as they had to go on the walls – they appear bathed in a silver light that causes bright flashes in the white túnicas Obtained thanks to a graceful, fluid pastel La lactancia de San Bernardo and the imposition of the chasuble in San Ildefonso, both in the Museo del Prado, are of unknown origin and of controversial dating but could be of the same period. The paintings are They cite for the first time in the inventory of the Royal Palace of La Granja in 1746 as belonging to Isabel de Farnesio, probably acquired during the years of the court’s stay in Seville. For its size, more than three meters high and Similar dimensions can be supposed to be altar paintings, although it is unknown the church for which they were painted and if the origin, as it seems, is the same for both Still it is appraised in them and The taste for chiaroscuro lighting and the monumental figures, with a sober composition and several decorative details that recognize the influence of Juan de Roelas, mainly on the canvas of Sant Bernat, although Murillo makes a treatment of the more accessories Naturalist At the same time, it should be noted that the subtle placement of the lights, especially in the most intensely illuminated areas, announces the lyrical treatment of the material that will be characteristic of its subsequent work

There are two important sets, whose commissions could not be documented, which could also belong to this period due to their rich sense of color and the disposition of some figures to contraclaror. They are the three monumental canvases dedicated to the life of Saint John The Baptist, of whom only one knows that in 1781 they hung up in the refectory of the monastery of Augustinian monks of San Leandro de Sevilla, sold by the convent in 1812 and currently dispersed between the museums of Berlin, Cambridge and Chicago, and the prodigal son series (Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland), of which some sketch is preserved in the Prado Museum; This series is inspired by engravings by Jacques Callot but that Murillo knew how to adapt to his own pictorial style and to the Sevillian atmosphere of the moment, as can be seen in the dress and appearance of its protagonists. This historical approach is especially worthy of being Mentioned in the canvas called The prodigal son makes dissolute life, where a contemporary costumbrista scene with all the elements of a winery and other skillfully resolved naturalistic details is seen; For example, the figure of the musician who, located in contraclaror, makes the banquet more pleasant, the puppy that comes under the tablecloths or the generous necklines of the ladies adorned with clothes of colorful colors and a measured eroticism

In 1658 he made a stay in Madrid where he seems to have met Diego Velázquez and in 1660 he took part in the founding of the Painting Academy in Seville. His goal was to allow both the painters and sculptors as young people Apprentices perfected the anatomical drawing; The academy facilitated the practice with live models, activity borne by the teachers who also contributed money for spending on wood and candles, because the sessions took place at night Murillo was his first co-chair, along with Francisco de Herrera el Jove, who He left that same year in Madrid to settle permanently in the court In November 1663 he still participated in the session where the writing of the statutes of the academy was agreed, but then he had already left his presidency; At the head of it, the name of Sebastián de Llanos and Valdés According to Palomino appears in the documentation, which always describes Murillo’s calm character and modesty, he would have abandoned and established a particular academy at his house, not having disputes with Juan de Valdés Leal, who was elected president then, who was of a fierce nature and that “in all he wanted to be only him”

From 1660 it is one of the most significant and admired works of his production: The birth of Maria of the Louvre Museum, painted for the carrying of the Chapel of the Conception of the cathedral in Seville In the center, under a small glory, a A group of matrons and angels in decreasing composition -in Rubens’s imitation- brighten up brightly around the newborn, from which a light bulb emerges that intensely illuminates the foreground and degrades to the bottom. This way, it is created Atmospheric effects on the side scenes, which are more backward and with autonomous light bulbs, where Santa Anna appears on the left – in a bed under a canopy, contrasting its dim lighting with that of the chair located in a first term In contraclaror-, and two donkeys on the right, who are drying their diapers with the heat of the fire of a chimney According to the critic Diego Angulo, this carefully studied hierarchy of the lights makes thinking about flamenco painting In particular, in that of Rembrandt Murillo he was able to know the work of the Flemish painters by means of prints, or by the presence of one of his works in sevillary collections, such as that of Melchor de Guzmán (Marquess Of Villamanrique), who knows that he had a painting from the inauguration of the church of Santa María la Blanca

Dutch and Flemish influences are also seen in their landscapes, praised already by Palomino, who left writing: “one can not overlook the famous skill that our Murillo had in the landscapes” If we leave aside some pure landscape of attribution Doubtful, like the Landscape with waterfall of the Prado Museum, they are treated as landscape backgrounds in narrative compositions. The best examples correspond to the four canvases that have been preserved in the Jacob series of stories that he painted for the Marquis de Villamanrique; They were exposed to the facade of their palace during the consecration festivities of the church of Santa María la Blanca in 1665, and should probably have been painted in about 1660

Palomino, who confuses the subject, as he speaks of stories about David’s life, tells that the Marquis de Villamanrique commissioned the landscapes to Ignacio de Iriarte, a specialist in the genre, and the figures in Murillo. But it is seen that When he agreed to the painters about who was to do his part Murillo, angry, said “if he thought, he needed it for the landscapes, he was mistaken: and so, he alone, made these paintings with Stories and landscapes, something so wonderful as yours; Which brought the aforementioned Mr. Marquess to Madrid »

The series – originally should be made up of five paintings of which only four were known – in the eighteenth century, it was in Madrid under the Marquis of Santiago, and at the beginning of the 19th century it had already been dispersed. Now, two are located Of the stories in the Hermitage Museum, which Jacob is blessed for Isaac and Jacob’s stairs. The other two are in the United States: Jacob seeks home idols at the Raquel store, preserved at the Cleveland Museum of Art, and Jacob put the sticks on the flock of Laban, owned by the Meadows Museum in Dallas. This type of broad landscapes – especially those two last ones that are arranged around a central motif and open to a distant bright background on which they are cut The diffused profiles of the mountains-, suggest the knowledge of flamenco landscapers like Joos de Momper or Jan Wildens; Perhaps he also knew the Italian landscapes of Gaspard Dughet, a contemporary painter. As for the attention he gives to cattle, which is numerous in both paintings, he seems to refer to Pedro de Orrente but adapted to the style of Murillo Al Jacob puts You stick to Labán’s flock, with a great naturalism, even the appearance of the sheep are represented, the act that allusions the biblical text (Genesis, 30, 31), and that due to the modesty it was Hidden in later paintings, until being re-incorporated into the twentieth century

In 1655, when Pope Alexander VII was appointed, Philip IV demanded the annulment of a decree of the year 1644 made by the Roman Congregation of the Holy Office, which prohibited the attribution of the term “immaculate” Associated to the conception of Maria, besides also requesting the approval of the Immaculate Conception party as had been celebrated in Spain a long time ago After the numerous efforts of the Spanish emissaries, on December 8, 1661 Pope Alexander VII Promulgated the bula Sollicitudo omnium ecclesiarum, which although it was not the dogmatic definition that some expected, proclaimed the antiquity of the pious belief and admitted its celebration. The bull was received in Spain with enthusiasm and everywhere celebrations were celebrated , Of which there have been numerous artistic testimonies

In commemoration of the bull, the rector of the church of Santa María la Blanca, Domingo Velázquez Soriano, agreed to carry out a remodeling of the temple, whose works were partially costly by Canon Justino de Neve, who was responsible for the commission Four paintings in Murillo that were to decorate the walls The works, which transformed the old medieval building into a spectacular baroque temple, began in 1662 and were completed in 1665; It will be inaugurated with solemn celebrations described meticulously by Fernando de la Torre Farfán in Fiestas that celebrated the parish church of S maria la Blanca, Chapel of the Holy Metropolitan Church, and the patriarchal of Seville: in response to the brief nave granted by N Smo Padre Alexandro VII in favor of the pseudo mystery of the Conception without fault Original of María Santiisima Nuestra Senóra, in the First Physical Instant of his being, published the following year in Sevilla Farfán describes the church, whose walls were already hanging paintings Of Murillo, and the ephemeral decorations installed in the square located in front of the temple where, in a provisional stack, there was an altarpiece with at least three other paintings of Murillo owned by Neve: a great Immaculate in the central niche On its side, El Buen Pastor and San Juan Bautista Niño

Of the four Murillo paintings in the form of a half point, there are two larger ones that are located in the central nave and are illuminated by the skylights of the dome; They represent stories of the foundation of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome These two works are part of what are considered the masterpieces of the painter. It is the dream of patrician Joan and his wife where the moment is represented in which August, in dreams, the Virgin appears to ask them for the dedication of a temple to the place they will see drawn with snow on Mount Esquilino Murillo, instead of showing them asleep in the bed, represents them Overcome by the sound: he, reclining on the table covered by a red cover on which there is already closed a thick book he was reading; And she, on a pillow, according to the custom of the time, with her head fallen on the interrupted seams The decreasing composition amplifies the feeling of relaxation The penumbra that invades the scene, broken by the halo that wraps Maria with the ” Infant, it is matched by the lights that subtly emphasize each detail of the composition and create, with the fluid and fuzzy treatment of the contours, the space where, placidly, the figures are placed

The story continues in the other painting which shows the scene of Patrici John and his wife before the Pope Liberi Murillo divides the scene and has, on the left, the patrician and his wife before the Pope, who has I had the same dream-; And to the right, in the distance, appears the procession that goes towards the mountain in order to verify the content of the dreams; The pope Liberi reappears under the pallet The main scene is arranged in a broad scene of classical architecture and illuminated from the left. The light affects mainly the woman and the monk that accompanies him, creating A backlight in which the figure of the pope stands out on the naked architecture, possibly portrayed with the traces of Alexander VII. The same taste for the backlight is in the procession, painted with a slight, almost sketched brushstroke, in which the figures of Viewers of the foreground appear as silhouettes immersed in the shadow; Thus, it is possible to emphasize the luminosity of the same procession

The other two paintings, of smaller size, were found at the headwaters of the lateral naves of the temple and represented, one, the Immaculate Conception, and the other, the Triumph of the Eucharist. The four works left Spain during The French War and only the first two, destined for the Napoleon Museum, were returned in 1816 and incorporated into the collection of the Prado Museum. The other two, after successive sales, went to the Louvre Museum – the painting Which represents the Immaculate Conception-, and that of the Eucarist Triumph is part of a particular English collection

By 1664, he painted some works for the convent of Saint Augustine, of which we can highlight the one that represents Saint Augustine contemplating the Virgin Mary and the crucified Christ (Museo del Prado). Between 1665 and 1669 he painted, in two stages, 16 Canvases for the church of the Capuchin convent of Seville; They were destined for the main altarpiece, in the altarpieces of the side chapels and in the heart, which in this case was a Immaculate. After the confiscation of Mendizábal in 1836 the paintings went to the Museum of Fine Arts in Seville, except for the Porciúncula Jubilee It occupied the center of the main altarpiece, which is currently preserved in the Wallraf-Richartz Museum of Cologne. The repertoire of saints that make up this set includes some of the “capital works of its best moment” The paired figures of Saint Leandre and Saint Bonaventure and the Santes Justa and Rufina, who occupied the sides of the first body of the altarpiece, have this character so characteristic of the painter: alive portraits and deep humanity in the expressions, which are calm and melancholic The holy Sevillanas Justa and Rufina, accompanied by some Ceramic vessels of beautiful invoice -in allusion to their profession of potters and their martyrdom- hold a reproduction of the Giralda in memory of The earthquake of 1504 in which, according to tradition, they prevented their fall by embracing it. However, their presence in the altarpiece is justified because the church had been built in the place that occupied the ancient amphitheater Where they had suffered martyrdom In regard to Saint Leandre, they are alluded to the history of the temple, since, according to tradition, in that place a convent had been built before the conmemoration of the Umayyad of Hispania and he n ‘ It was the founder Alhora, Saint Bonaventure appears, as one of the main saints of the order, and Murillo makes an allegorical transfer; Contrary to its usual iconography, it represents a barbeque, for being a Capuchin convent, and with the model of a Gothic church, probably copied from an engraving, to make it understand its antiquity

Among the paintings dedicated to the Franciscan saints -Sant Antoni de Pàdua, Sant Feliu Cantalici- stands out especially that of Saint Francis embracing Christ on the Cross, which is among the most popular of the painter The softness in the light and the colors that harmonize without violence with him Brown tone of the Franciscan habit, with greenish backgrounds or with the naked body of Christ, intensifies the intimate character of the mystical visions that are stripped of all dramaturgy. It is also very representative of the evolution of the painter the work Adoration of the shepherds , Realized by the altar of a lateral chapel Compared with other previous versions of works that deal with the same subject – like the one conserved in the Prado Museum realized around 1650, very naturalistic -, the innovation can be observed clearly in what it does To the pictorial bill, with a slight brushstroke, and the use of light to recreate the space sticking to the backlight, in contrast to the use of chiaroscuro and tight modeling Of his first works

Sant Tomàs de Villanueva, the painting that the painter called “my Canvas” – originally, was located in the first chapel on the right – exemplifies well the technical level reached by the painter in this series Tomàs de Villanueva, although Augustinian and not Franciscan, recently he had been canonized by Alexander VII and as archbishop of Valencia he stood out for his charitable spirit, a fact that Murillo emphasizes surrounding him with beggars whom he helps with a table where there is an open book He no longer reads, with what he pretends to give to understand that theological science without charity is nothing. The scene goes through a classic interior, with a remarkable depth highlighted by the alternation of shadows and spaces, Luminous A monumental column located in the middle and lower level allows creating a bright halo around the head of the saint, whose height increases the position of the stalking beggar that is kneeling before his I, and that shows a studied crust of his bare back The same as studied seem the diversity of characters of the beggars: from the old man who puts his hand in his eyes with a gesture of surprise or disbelief, the elderly Looking with such a fierce, young boy waiting for his plea, even the child, in the lower left corner of the canvas and highlighted in contraclarore, that all content shows to his mother the coins he has received

The Brotherhood of Charity was founded in the middle of the 15th century by Pedro Martínez, the preacher of the cathedral. He began his work a little before 1578, when his members rented the chapel of Saint George to the Crown; This chapel is located in the Royal Drassanes and is when its first Rule is set, a document in which the goal of the brotherhood was set: to bury the executed For years it took a languid life, to the point that in 1640 The chapel was in ruins and the brothers decided their demolition; In this way, the construction of a new chapel began, which would take more than 25 years to be completed. Plague of 1649 favored its revitalization with the incorporation of new brothers but it was the entrance of Miguel Mañara – A family of merchants of origin choirs and their choice as a big brother in December 1663 -, which led to the conclusion of the church’s works. In addition, a warehouse of the shipyards was transformed into a hospice and went To reform the same fraternity, which as of that moment would also have the purpose of welcoming the tramp and feeding them in the hospice. In this way, it became an incurable dispensary, collecting abandoned patients to transfer them , On the shoulders of the brothers if necessary, to the hospitals where they could attend

In all likelihood, Mañara was the author of the decorative proposal, adjusted to a coherent narrative discourse, and the person in charge of choosing the artists: Murillo and Valdés Leal -pintura-, Bernardo Simón de Pineda -architecture of the altarpieces-, and Pedro Roldán, the sculpture

The mentioned “hieroglyphs”, an illustration of works of mercy, can be identified in the six paintings by Murillo that, according to the descriptions of Antonio Ponz and Juan Agustín Ceán Bermúdez, hung on the walls of the ship of the ” Church below the cornice, forming another one of the capital series of the mature stage of the Fourth painter were robbed by Marshal Soult during the French War and are currently dispersed by different museums, retaining in their place only the two Larger, shaped and decorated in the cruise. These pictorial representations of works of mercy are: The healing of the paralytic (London, National Gallery) -visit the sick, St. Peter released by the angel (St. Petersburg, Museum of the Hermitage) -redemption of captives-, Multiplication of breads and fish (in situ) -giving food to those who are hungry-, The return of the prodigal son (Washington, National Gallery of Art) – to nuance- , Abraham and the Three Angels (Ottawa, National Gallery) – donate to the pilgrim -, and Moses sprouting Horeb’s rock water (in situ) – drink after thirsty –

Diego Angulo emphasizes that, together with the painter’s ability not to repeat itself and the mastery of gesticulation in the secondary characters, which with the diversity of their reactions deepen narrative content, there is the breadth of the architectural space Represented in the porches of the probate pool where, between the light and gradual blurring of the forms, significant effects of aerial perspective are achieved. In the two largest paintings, the most complex ones with regard to composition and number of Characters, Murillo was also inspired by other artists Probably, for Moses, he based himself on a canvas of the same subject of the genovese Gioacchino Assereto -which was well-known in Seville and that his work is currently in the Museo del Prado-, and For the Multiplication of Breads and Fish, in Francisco Herrera el Viejo; Of course, by reinterpreting the particular sensitivity of Murillo

The cycle of works of mercy in charge of Murillo was completed with the sculptural group, Burial of Christ, executed by Pedro Roldán, and because it represented the most important charitable work according to the origin of the institution, to bury the dead , Was in the greater altarpiece Apart from this series, the brotherhood paid four other paintings delivered by Murillo and Valdes Leal in 1672, with subjects that completed the previous works according to the concerns and guidelines of Mañara, collected in His Speech of truth

These four canvases, half-finished, were the famous “hieroglyphs of the last” of Valdés Leal. They were located at the foot of the nave, near the entrance to the temple, to remind those who entered the expiration of earthly goods and proximity Of the particular judgment, at which moment the balance could lean on the side of salvation by exercising the works of mercy shown in the previous series. But as all the motives of this series had been taken from the Bible, the two Murillo’s new paintings on the altars of the ship came to propose models of charity with which they could be identified more easily, due to a closer proximity of their protagonists: Saint John of God and St. Elisabet of Hungary, curing the tiny Murillo showed his sick starters, focusing on the realistic interpretation and showing the unpleasant part of the ulcerations, which gave rise to some criticisms when the picture Santa Elisabet d Hungary came to Paris, led by French troops. But with criticism, in France itself, shortly after praise came from the ability of “Spaniards” to conjugate the most sublime and vulgar

About twenty paintings on the subject of the Immaculate are painted by Murillo, a figure only surpassed by José Antolínez and that he has had the “painter of the Immaculate”, whose iconography was not the ” Inventor but a driver in Seville, where devotion was deeply rooted

The most primitive is probably the so-called Concepció Grand (Seville, Museum of Fine Arts), painted for the Franciscan church, where it was on the arch of the greater chapel, at high altitude, which allows to explain the corpulence of His figure For the technique used, it could be from a date close to 1650, when the church cruise was reconstructed after suffering a collapse. In this first approach to the subject, Murillo decidedly broke with the staticism that It characterized the Immaculate Seville, always attentive to the models established by Pacheco and Zurbarán, giving it a vigorous and ascendant dynamism through the movement of the layer, possibly influenced by the Immaculate of José de Ribera made for the Augustinian descalzas From Salamanca, and that Murillo could know for some engraving. Maria wears a white robe and a blue mantle, in accordance with the vision of the Portuguese Beatriz da Silva, remembered by Pachec Or in his iconographic instructions. But in other details, Murillo completely disregarded the usual Marian attributes that with didactic character abounded in previous representations. He also departed from the iconography tradition of apocalyptic women and left only the moon under his feet And the “sun dress”, understood as the atmospheric background of an amber color on which the silhouette of the Virgin Mary is cut. She places it on a cloud base supported by four angels and reduces the landscape to a short foggy strip; For Murillo, Maria’s only image was enough to explain her immaculate conception

Murillo’s second approach to the subject is also related to the Franciscans, the great defenders of the mystery; In fact, it is a portrait of Fr. Juan de Quirós, who in 1651 published in two volumes Glòries de Maria The large painting, and at the moment in the Archbishop’s Palace of Seville, was commissioned to Murillo by the Hermandad de la Vera Cruz that It had its headquarters at the convent of Saint Francis; It was in 1652 Fray Juan de Quirós appears portrayed in front of an image of the Immaculate, which is accompanied by angels bearing the symbols of the Litanies; He interrupted the writing of the book to look at the viewer, and is sitting in front of a table in which the two heavy volumes he wrote in honor of Maria rested The backrest of the friezes chair, superimposed on the golden edge framing the image , Subtly, allows us to appreciate that the portrait is in front of a painting and not in the real presence of the Immaculate – “picture in the picture” -, framed by columns and fists with garlands The model of the Virgin Mary, with her hands Crossed on the chest and the elevated view, it is already what the painter will never recreate, in its numerous later versions

In the Immaculate, painted for the church of Santa María la Blanca, he also included portraits of devotees of the mystery Torre Farfán identified among them the rector, Domingo Velázquez, who could suggest to the painter the complex theological content of this one Canvas and their artistic pair, the Triumph of the Eucharist Both are linked and are explained by the texts enrolled in the phylactries drawn in them – “IN PRINCIPLE DILEXIT EAM” (“At first [God] loved her”) -, with the image of the Immaculate and the text formed with the first words of Genesis and a verse of the Book of wisdom (VIII, 3) – «IN FINEM DILEXIT EOS» (John Chapter XIII) – There is also the • Legacy of the Eucharist, with the words taken from the story of the Last Supper in the Gospel of John: “knowing Jesus that the time had come for him to move from this world to the Father, having loved his loved ones, Until the end “The Immaculate, whose dogmatic definition they demanded His supporters were thus associated with the Eucharist, the central element of Catholic doctrine: the same manifestation of love for men that had led Jesus at the end of his days to be embodied in bread, had preserved Mary from sin Before all time, it must be remembered that, when entering the drawing academy, the Sevillan painters had to swear fidelity to the Holy Sacrament and the doctrine of the Immaculate

The Immaculate of Santa María la Blanca responds to the prototype created by the painter around 1660, or a little later, years to which the so-called Immaculada del Escorial belongs (Museo del Prado). It is one of the most beautiful and well-known works of Painter, who was used here as a teenager model, younger than the models of the other versions. The features that he presents in this work – the undulating outline of the figure, the layer just disengaged from the body diagonally, and the The harmony of the blue and white colors of the dress with the Argentine gray of the clouds below the lightly golden glow that envelops the figure of Mary – are already in all subsequent versions. The one that probably is the last one, the Immaculate of the Venerables, also Called Immaculada de Soult (Museo del Prado), could have been commissioned in 1678 by Justino de Neve for one of the altars of the Venerable Hospital of Seville. Despite its size, Maria appears here with some dimensions Reduced, as they increase the number of angels that glittered around their surroundings, anticipating the delicate taste of the Rococo It was taken from Spain by Marshal Soult and was acquired in 1852 by the Louvre Museum for 586,000 francs of gold, the most High paid up to that time by a painting According to Ceán Bermúdez, it was considered a work “superior to all of its hand”. His later entry to the Museo del Prado occurred as a result of an agreement signed between the Spanish governments and The Frenchman of Philippe Pétain in 1940, when the painter’s valuation had decayed, being exchanged together with the Lady of Elche and other works of art for a copy of the portrait of Maria Anna of Austria by Diego Velázquez, then owned From the Prado Museum, which at that time was considered the original version of the portrait

La Madre de Dios con el Infante, in an isolated and standing figure, is another issue that is often dealt with by Murillo. In this case, it is usually small works, probably intended for private oratories. Most of the conserved They were painted between 1650 and 1660, with the technique still of chiaroscuro and, independent of its devotional character, with a defendant naturalistic sense of the feminine beauty and the childlike grace. It is observed the influence of Rafael, that it would have to know through Engravings, such as the elegance of the slim youthful models of his godmother and the delicate expression of motherly feelings; This feature makes it unnecessary to accompany other symbols, which are more typical of medieval religiosity but which could still be found in the compositions of Francisco de Zurbarán dedicated to the same theme. Parallel to this, the influence of Flemish painting is acknowledged, Well represented in Seville, in details such as the rich treatment of clothes, as it appears in some of the versions with the greatest number of old copies, such as La Virgen del Rosario with the Children of the Prado Museum or the Madre de Dios God with the Infant of the Pitti Palace In both works, the tender expression of Maria and the playful attitude of the Child joins the choice of a rich range of pastel, pink and blue tones, an announcement of Rococo taste

With the same naturalist breath, he addressed other reasons for the cycle of childhood of Christ, such as the Escape to Egypt (Detroit Institute of Arts) or the Holy Family (Prado, Derbyshire, Chatsworth House). The artist’s interest in the themes of the Childhood and the same evolution of Baroque sentimentality will also be reflected in the isolated figures of the Infant Jesus sleeping on the cross, or blessing, and of John the Baptist child, or “Saint John”. The version preserved in the Museum of the Prado, a late work (around 1675) and one of the most popular of the painter, in which the Infant Jesus, with a mystical gesture, and the accompanying lamb are drawn with a fluid brushstroke on a silver-plated landscape Very strokes

Murillo’s extensive production also includes around 25 genre paintings, mainly with children’s motives, although not exclusively. The first news that is taken from almost all of them comes from outside of Spain, which suggests they were Made by order of Flemish merchants established in Seville, clients also of religious paintings; Among them, it could be Nicolás de Omazur, an important collector of works by the painter, and that he had an interest in this type of secular paintings for the Nordic market in contrast to those dedicated to the childhood of Jesus. Some of them They, as Children playing the dice (Alte Pinakothek of Munich), were already cited in the name of Murillo in an inventory in Antwerp in 1698. At the beginning of the eighteenth century they were acquired by Maximilian of Bavaria for the royal Bavarian collection

The influences that he could have received from the Danish painter Eberhard Keil -installed in Rome in 1656- and Dutch bamboos, are not enough to explain Murillo’s approach to creating an unprecedented gender painting. The scale of the Their figures, integrated into small landscape backgrounds – but in any case larger than Keil’s painting, which fills the space with their figures – and the choice of themes, anecdotal, of a cheerful and spontaneous nature, are born from The naturalistic spirit of his time and the attraction of the painter for child psychology, also present in his religious painting

Although their protagonists are usually begging children or humble families, poorly dressed, their figures always convey optimism, as the painter looks for the happy moment of the game or snack The solitude and the air of commiseration with which he portrayed The Young mendicant (Museum of the Louvre), that by the technique and the treatment of the light can date towards 1650 or a little before, will disappear in later works between 1665 and 1675 the comparison, proposed already by Diego Angle, Between the mendicant Boy and another similar but later date, Grandma peering at her grandson (Alte Pinakothek of Munich) illustrates the change of attitude: the details of sadness and loneliness have disappeared completely and what attracts the Painter is the childhood spirit always ready to play; Portrays the entertaining child with a loaf of bread and the dog’s earring that he plays between his legs while grandma is in charge of her hygiene

Tables like Two children eating a carmanyola and Children playing the dice – a game that is not authorized by the moralists -, both kept in the Munich pinacoteca, could be inspired by sayings or unidentified picaresque court tales, but they do not seem to respond to any other The intention is to portray with amiable tone groups of happy children, playing or eating sweets, and who are able to survive with few resources thanks to the vitality of youth. A similar tone, but perhaps with a greater content argument, are The two paintings preserved in the Dulwich Picture Gallery: Invitation to the ball game in the shovel – which reflects the doubts of a boy sent to make a commission while another pisses invite him to participate in the game, and Tres niños En The latter, Murillo, deals with several psychological reactions to a spontaneous act: a black child carrying a pitcher on his shoulder -Murillo could have portrayed Juan, his slave born in 1657-, addressed to The guys are about to have a snack and, with a friendly gesture, they ask for a piece of cake; One of them smiles while the one who has the cake tries to protect it with their hands with a frightened gesture

Always attracted by the disinherited and the spontaneous reactions of simple people, Two Women in the Window (Washington, National Gallery of Art) portrays with the same tone amiable and anecdotal what could be a brothel scene The so-called Girl with flowers ( Dulwich Picture Gallery), sometimes categorized as “gender” painting and confused with a flower seller, instead responds to the allegorical genre and can be interpreted as a representation of “spring”, whose pair It could be the personification of «summer» in the form of a young man covered with a turban and spikes, a work recently incorporated into the National Gallery of Scotland. These could be two paintings on the stations that Nicolás de Omazur acquired in the testamentary of Justino de Neve; They would not be, in addition, the only allegories painted by Murillo, since Omazur was also the owner of a painting, currently missing, dedicated to La Música, Bacchus and Love

Although in a relatively small number, the portraits painted by Murillo are distributed throughout their entire career and present a remarkable formal variety, which would not be alien to the taste of the various customers. Canino Justino de Neve (London, National Gallery) responds perfectly to own models of the Spanish portrait, with the emphasis on the dignity of the portrayed character; He is sitting at his desk, has a dog at his feet and is in front of an elegant architectural background, open to a garden Standing portraits such as that of Lord Andres de Andrade (Metropolitan of New York) or Knight with gorgera (Knight with Golilla, from the Prado Museum) accuse the double influence of Diego Velázquez and Anton van Dyck. This skill will once again be exhibited with a remarkable mastery – a fluid and sobriety brush in the color – in the portrait of Mr. Juan Antonio de Miranda y Ramírez Of Vergara (Madrid, collection of the Dukes of Alba), one of the last works of the painter, dated accurately in 1680 when the model, canon of the cathedral, was 25 years old

The portraits of Nicolás de Omazur (Museo del Prado) and that of his wife, Isabel de Malcampo, known only for a copy, are half-body and would be inscribed in an illusionist framework. In this case, they respond to the taste more specifically Flemish and Dutch, both for its format and for its allegorical content: they bring to her hands, she flowers and he a skull, symbols typical of Vanitas painting, of Nordic tradition. Is this the format chosen also for her two self-portraits : One of the most youthful – pretends he paints it on a marble stone in the manner of a classic relief – and that of the National Gallery in London, painted for his children, inscribed in an oval frame, A trompe l’oeil and accompanied by the tools typical of his trade

Very singular and alien to all these models is the Portrait of Mr. Antonio Hurtado de Salcedo, also called El hunter (towards 1664, private collection). It is of great format because it would be destined to occupy a privileged place in the house of his client , What would be the Marquis de Legarda He portrays in the middle of the mintry, in front and standing, with the shotgun on the ground and in the company of a servant and three dogs. Nothing in him remembers the portraits painted by Velázquez of the members of the family Royal in hunting suit; And, on the contrary, it seems closer to some works by Carreño and with a possible influence by van Dyck

After the series of the Hospital of the Charity, splendidly paid, Murillo did not receive new orders of this magnitude A new cycle of bad harvests caused the hunger of 1678 and two years later an earthquake caused serious damages to the city Els Church resources were dedicated to charity, leaving aside the beautification of the temples. However, Murillo did not miss the work thanks to the protection provided by old friends, such as Canon Justino de Neve and established foreign merchants In Seville; He received orders to paint devotional works for private oratories and also Nicolás de Omazur, a scene set up in Seville in 1669, brought together up to 31 works by Murillo, some as significant as The Wedding of Cana (Birmingham, Barber Institute) Another merchant established in Cádiz in 1662, the Genoese Giovanni Bielat, when he died in 1681 left the Capuchin convent of Genoa the seven paintings he owned of Murillo, who belong to different periods, and which are currently dispersed by Various museums Among these works there is a new version in landscape format of the subject of Saint Thomas of Villanueva giving alms (London, The Wallace Collection, circa 1670), with a new and admirable repertoire of beggars. In addition, it reached Capuchin of Cádiz a certain amount of money that they used in paintings for the altarpiece of the church, order made to Murillo

The legend of his death, as Palomino explains, is related precisely to this task. He would have died as a result of a fall from the scaffold when he painted in the church of this convent of Cadiz; The work he was doing was the large painting on the mystical expositions of St. Catherine. The fall produced a hernia which “by its very honesty” did not want to recognize, and that it caused death shortly after The truth is That the painter began to work in this work without leaving Seville at the end of 1681 or beginnings of 1682, and died on April 3 of that year Only a few days before, on March 28, he had still participated in a Bread distributions organized by the Brotherhood of Charity His testament, where he appointed executors to his son Gaspar Esteban Murillo, cleric, Justino de Neve and Pedro Núñez de Villavicencio, was dated in Seville the same day of his death In the The document declared that he left without ending, among other works, four small canvases commissioned by Nicolás de Omazur and the great canvas of the mystical expositions of Santa Caterina for the high altar of the Capuchin of Cádiz. Ra, he could only complete the drawing on the canvas and begin the application of the color to the three main figures. His disciple Francisco Meneses Osorio completed his paintings, which all the canvases of the altarpiece belong to, all of them preserved in the Museum of Cádiz

In Seville, during the second half of the seventeenth century, Murillo’s painting – calm, calm, with its models of seals and saints impregnated with delicate sentimentality – was imposed on that of Valdes Leal – more decidedly Baroque and Dramatic scenes-; Murillo filled with his influence a good part of Sevillian painting of the following century. However, it is a superficial influence, centered on the imitation of models and compositions, without any of its followers achieving mastery of drawing, light and loose , Nor the luminosity and transparency of the color of the master Of the direct disciples most known is Francisco Meneses Osorio, who completed the work initiated by Murillo in the altarpiece of the Capuchin of Cádiz; He was an independent painter since 1663. In his most personal works, it is observed, beside the influence of Murillo, also that of Zurbarán. The same thing happens with Cornelio Schut, who arrived in Seville probably already trained as a painter, from whom Some drawings are very close to those of Murillo. His works on oil are nevertheless discreet and accuse a variety of influences. As for Pedro Núñez de Villavicencio, it is a unique personality; He was a friend rather than a disciple and a knight of the Order of Malta, which allowed him to come in contact with the painting of Mattia Preti. His paintings, with children’s affairs (Children playing dices, Museo del Prado), hardly remember the Of the Murillo by the subject, because it separated from him both to the composition – more bigoted -, as in the technique, where he used some brush-strokes loaded with pasta

Linked to the painting of Murillo, without it being possible to specify the degree of personal relationship, we must mention Juan Simón Gutiérrez and Esteban Márquez de Velasco, who have received some works of a certain quality and very influenced by the teacher Also Sebastián Gómez, About who was knitting a legend to place it as the “slave painter” of Murillo, probably to draw a parallelism with the relationship between Velázquez and Juan de Pareja. With Alonso Miguel de Tovar and Bernardo Lorente Germán, the painter of the Divines Pastores, the influence of Murillo goes into the first half of the 18th century. Both, together with Domingo Martínez – with a delicate and tender painting – served at the court during his stay in Seville from 1729 to 1733. The arrival of the court in Seville represented a moment of glory for the painting of Murillo, since Queen Isabel Farnese bought all the works she could and, among them, a large part of those that are currently preserved in the Museum of L Prado For those dates, there was no left in Seville for any of his genre paintings and Palomino left writing: “So today, outside Spain, it is considered more a painting by Murillo, than one by Ticià or van Dyck It’s so colorful, to get the popular aura! ”

There are murillo paintings already documented in ancient Flemish and German collections, mainly of genre scenes: Children eating grapes and melons – in Antwerp, possibly since 1658 -, and Children playing the dice, documented in 1698 in The same city where both paintings were purchased by Maximilian II. At the end of the 17th century some of his works arrived in Italy and England. In Italy, they were works of a religious nature given by the Genoese merchant Giovanni Bielat In England, they arrived from the hand Of one Lord Godolphin that in 1693 would have bought for a high price a painting entitled Children of Morella; Probably the work is currently known as Three Boys and was auctioned with the collection of the English plenipotentiary minister in Rome. But the decisive impulse in the dissemination of his fame came with the first biography dedicated to the painter, including In the Latin edition of 1683 of the Academy nobilissimae artis pictoriae by the painter and tractadist Joachim von Sandrart. In the book, Diego Velázquez mentions – whose portraits had surprised the Romans – and he dedicated a biography to Josep de Ribera – but including – Among the Italian painters-, and a biography in Murillo illustrated, in addition, with his Self-portrait In fact, except the birthdate in Seville and the year of his death, nothing in the biography of Sandrart It was truthful; But with his inclusion he demonstrated the high esteem he felt for him, placing him at the level of the Italian painters and telling him that it was like a “new Paolo Veronese”. As details, von Sandrart imagines his burial accompanied by solemnly Exequias, in which they carry the coffin “two Marquises and four knights of various Orders, accompanied by a great crowd, innumerable”

However, none of his paintings had entered the royal collections when his inventory was made in 1700, although Palomino explains that a Immaculate one of Murillo had been exposed in Madrid in 1670, causing a general surprise , And that Charles II would have called the court, an offer but that the painter would have ruled out for his advanced age. It was precisely the biography that Palomino dedicated to him, published in 1724 – although with some inaccuracies -, the best reference for To the knowledge and later valuation of the artist In her she informed of the high price that obtained their works abroad, which could influence in the acquisition of seventeen works of the painter on the part of the queen Isabel Farnese during the ‘Staying of the Court in Seville (1729-1733) Anton Raphael Mengs, first painter of King Carlos III and theoretician of painting, who valued above all in Velázquez, judged Murillo’s painting as two different styles: the first of a Greater strength to attend Going naturally, and the second most “sweet”

The prestige of Murillo continued to increase throughout the 18th century and with him the export of his works, to the point that in 1779 an order was issued, signed by the Count of Floridablanca, expressly prohibited to sell to foreign buyers the His paintings, because “the King had heard that some foreigners bought in Seville all the paintings they can buy from Bartolomé Murillo, and other famous painters, to take them out of the kingdom. The order added that those who wished To sell works of the painter could in any case be directed to the king to offer them for sale and that they were thus incorporated into the royal collections, but the effects of this provision would have to be very limited, because only three of their works They joined the Corona One of them, a penitent Magdalena, in this period, is currently at the Museum of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, and was seized at the customs office of Ágreda when it was intended Export illegally

A good example of the interest posed by Murillo’s painting in England during the eighteenth century is the self-portrait of the painter William Hogarth with his great Danish, inspired by the self-portrait of Seville. Also copies of Murillo’s works by Gainsborough , Who got to own a San Juan Bautista in the desert, considered at the moment like a work of factory

The reception of Murillo in France was later in being silenced by André Félibien. However, during the 18th century, some of his works arrived at the country, including two paintings of the genre owned by the countess of Verrue and four religious works and The Young mendicant, paintings acquired by Louis XVI and destined for the Louvre In the nineteenth century, the painter’s popularity reached its climax with the transfer by Marshal Jean de Dieu Soult to many of his works destined for the Musée Napoleon Soult He confiscated numerous works of the painter in Seville, fourteen of them for his own collection, many of which have never returned to Spain. In 1852, when auctioning the Marshal’s collection in Paris, 586,000 were paid Francs for the soult as Inmaculada de Soult, the highest price paid up until then for a painting Other large batches of paintings by Murillo were auctioned in Paris and London with the collections Proceedings of the banker Alejandro Maria Aguado and Lluís Felip I, after his exhibition at the Spanish Gallery of the Louvre between 1838 and 1848

Among those who praised Murillo’s work in France, he emphasized the romantic painter Eugène Delacroix, who copied his Santa Caterina, a feminine beauty model, in the same way that the realistic painter Henri Fantin-Latour would leave his personal version Of the mendicant Child (Castres, Goya Museum) Théophile Gautier would consecrate Murillo as the “painter of the sky”, while Velazquez was from the earth, although critics like Louis Viardot did not lack either accused the painter to fall too much in the The vulgarity with his little idealized popular characters Jacob Burckhardt, after visiting the Spanish Gallery of the Louvre, will consider Murillo as one of the greatest artists of all time, admirable for the realism of his canvases in which “beauty is still a piece of Nature “, but also for its” curious idealism “; He comes to consider the Self-portrait of London superior to the portraits of Velázquez

In the second half of the 19th century, Carl Justi, the great biographer of Velázquez, and Wilhelm von Bode kept the prestige of the painter in Germany. At that time, Murillo’s reputation began to decline among critics throughout Europe, accused of To be a painter who was blazing, with an excess of sweetness, and lacking in dramatic tension; In addition, a propagandist of the Catholic religion. Much responsibility in this decline among the critics was the multiple copies of very poor quality that were made of his works, copies in all types of media, from dedicated prints and calendars In boxes of chocolates According to Enrique Lafuente Ferrari, these critics had forgotten to judge it in “their means and in their time”, task to which they will be delivered, already in the 20th century, August L Mayer or Diego Angulo Iniguez , Among others These authors will draw a biography of the painter based on the documentation and undressed of myths At the same time, Diego Angulo presented in 1980, at the gates of the third centenary of Murillo’s death, the purified catalog of his complete work