Bartolome Esteban Murillo
(1617 - 1682) |
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Religious and Secular Narratives, Art Work
| Name: |
Bartolome Esteban Murillo |
| Gender: |
Male |
| Place of Birth: |
Seville, Spain |
| Nationality: |
Spanish |
| Birth: |
1617 |
| Death: |
1682 |
| Website: |
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| Past Auctions: |
Click Here |
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Quick Facts
| Known For: |
Religious and Secular Narratives, |
| Medium: |
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| Method: |
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| Style: |
Spainsh Baroque |
| Fine Art Profession(s): |
Painting
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Biography
| One of seventeenth-century Spain's most celebrated painters, Murillo enjoyed a brilliant career and remained extraordinarily popular well into the nineteenth century, only to suffer neglect during the rising antisentimentality of the postromantic era. Recent decades have seen a revival of interest on the part of scholars. Murillo's genius for eliciting emotion through the medium of paint has earned renewed respect. No painter excelled him in his ability to wring feeling from every stroke of his brush. The heir among Spanish painters to Titian and van Dyck,* Murillo is universally regarded as the last great master of the Sevillian school. Born the fourteenth and last child of Gaspar Esteban and Maria Perez, Murillo was baptized in the church of La Magdalena in Seville on 1 January 1618. He was destined to endure much personal sorrow during a life devoted to the portrayal of radiant religious subjects and generally cheerful scenes of ordinary life. Orphaned when he was about ten and raised by his aunt and uncle, Murillo was placed with the painter Juan del Castillo and remained with him until 1638/9. Besides Castillo, the presence of Alonso Cano* in Seville undoubtedly influenced the young artist. In 1642 he met Pedro de Moya (a pupil of van Dyck), who made a lasting impression on Murillo, exposing him to the vivacity of Flemish painting. Moreover, Roelas, Herrera the Elder, Zurbarn, and Velazquez are all considered to be influential on Murillo's early development. Between 1639 and 1646 Murillo's career began. From 1645 to 1646 Murillo completed his first really significant commission - the St. Francis cycle, consisting of at least eleven large canvases illustrating lives of Franciscan saints - for the small cloister of the church of San Francisco in Seville. Sources vary as to the original number of canvases; published figures range from eleven to thirteen. Now scattered, nine examples are still known, and one, The Angel Kitchen (Paris, Louvre), bears Murillo's signature and the date 1646. These pictures (which reveal the young artist responding to sources as diverse as Italian mannerism, Zurbaran, and Flemish masters) earned him the admiration of his contemporaries, giving his career a substantial boost, and within a decade he was the undisputed leader of the Sevillian school. In 1645 Murillo married Dona Beatriz de Cabrera y Sotomayor - a marriage that produced ten children, only one of whom lived to maturity. The death of his wife in 1663 added to his sorrows and he never remarried, turning his energies instead to charitable works through his membership in the Brotherhood of Charity, which he obtained in 1665. Although scholars have debated the matter, a single brief visit to Madrid now dated to 1658 (earlier sources suggested dates ranging from 1642 to 1646) was apparently his only journey outside the area of Andalusia, placing him in contact with Velasquez just two years before the master's death. During that trip Murillo was also able to study the Flemish and Italian paintings in the royal collection. His career, spent almost entirely in Seville, saw him achieve early preeminence, from which he never fell during his lifetime. His friendship with the influential cleric Don Justino Neve ye Yevenes helped Murillo obtain important commissions almost from the start. A fine example of his early maturity is his Flight into Egypt (dated ca. 1650, Detroit Institute of Arts). Using a naturalistic mode in the representation of his characters and adopting a Venetian use of landscape, Murillo already demonstrated a proclivity to restrained but palpable sentiment that would earn him a great following. That quality of sentiment was particularly well suited for devotional themes such as St. Joseph, as well as the Virgin Mary, subjects he helped popularize in Spain. For a period and culture to which the Immaculate Conception was essential, Murillo was its interpreter par excellence. He helped make the theme popular and gave it its finest expression. Between 1650 and 1652 (scholars vary as to date) he began work on the Immaculate Conception (Seville, Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes) for San Francisco el Grande, his first notable essay on the theme for which he became so well known. Here the Virgin has a monumentality, seriousness, and vigor that would become refined in later versions. Already his brilliance and his independent vision is evident, and the Conception of the Franciscans established him as one of the foremost painters of Marian subjects in Spain. Scholars also date Murillo's earliest attempts at portraying the mundane world of genre painting to the late 1640s and early 1650s. One of the finest of these, The Young Beggar - also known as The Lice Chase (Paris, Louvre) or Boy Killing Fleas - is riveting for its unsparing yet charming look at the squalor of poverty. Though he rarely treated genre themes during these years, many of Murillo's religious subjects take on a similar flavor. Murillo's capacity to make his religious narratives accessible through their naturalism, while maintaining a distance through their sanctity, became increasingly sophisticated during the 1650s. One of the highpoints of his early achievements was his monumental Vision of St. Anthony of Padua (dated 1656), done for the baptismal chapel of Seville Cathedral (still in situ). Here the confrontation between the mundane and the celestial is gloriously yet simply and earnestly presented, born from equal measures of belief and talent. As Murillo's success with patrons grew, so did his standing in the artistic community. Murillo was instrumental in founding the Academy of Painting in Seville in 1660 and, with Francisco de Herrera the Younger,* became its co-president. Two years earlier Murillo undertook his journey to Madrid, where his exposure to Flemish, Italian, and Spanish masterpieces added depth and breadth to his own visual vocabulary. One of the notable products of that journey was his Jacob Laying the Peeled Rods before Laban 's Flock (dated 1660), for the Marquis of Villamanrique as part of five depictions of Jacob's story. Now in Dallas (Meadows Museum), Jacob Laying the Peeled Rods clearly reflects Murillo's response to Dutch and Flemish landscape traditions. Another frequently mentioned masterpiece is his Birth of the Virgin (dated 1660, Paris, Louvre), done for the entrance archway of the sacristy of the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception of Seville's cathedral. Dispensing with line and contour, Murillo here adopted the molten light, fluid brushwork, dissolving form, and sense of color that had its origins in Venetian painting. By the 1660s Murillo's commissions became grander in scale, and his leading role in Sevillian painting more assured. Three major commissions were awarded, beginning with four lunettes painted for Santa Maria La Blanca in 1665. High points of that commission include Murillo's Triumph of the Immaculate Conception (Paris, Louvre), Dream of Patrician John (dated 1665, Madrid, Prado), and Patrician John Reveals His Dream to Pope Liberius (dated 1665, Madrid, Prado), which are notable for their simplicity, cohesion, and quiet lyricism. In 1665 the Church of the Capuchins engaged Murillo in the largest commission of his lifetime, one that would ultimately involve twenty-one canvases that took him from 1665 to 1670 to complete and that are notable for their sustained level of quality. Nine canvases originally made up the high-altar retable, the central piece of which was the Jubilee of the Portiuncula (Cologne, Wallraf-Richarlz-Museum), and included subjects such as St. Joseph and the Christ Child (Seville, Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes). Of the side chapel altars, St. Francis Embracing the Crucified Christ (dated 1668-70, Seville, Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes) is particularly impressive for the restrained intensity of its religious sentiment and the poetic quality of the image. The Adoration of the Shepherds (Seville, Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes), done for another of the side chapels, is remarkable for Murillo's skillful juxtaposition of masses and voids as well as for his wonderful use of transparencies and subtle lighting to achieve effects that are at once bold and nuanced. Diverse in their conception and execution, Murillo's side-chapel decorations include his St. Thomas of Villanueva Distributing Alms (Seville, Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes), which is striking for its portrayal of human love and charity. Contrasting a mother embracing her child with St. Thomas reaching down to a beggar, Murillo sums up the similarities and differences between these two human conditions, revealing himself to be a gifted storyteller. Murillo's involvement with the brotherhood of the Santa Caridad increased when his friend Miguel Manara joined the confraternity in 1662, which must have assured the acceptance of Murillo*s own application for membership in 1665. From 1667 to 1670, Murillo worked on eight impressive canvases for the Hospital of Charity's new chapel. Dedicated to portraying the seven acts of mercy, these include Clothing the Naked depicted as the Return of the Prodigal Son (Washington, DC, National Gallery of Art); Feeding the Hungry, Feeding of the Five Thousand (Seville, Hospital de la Caridad); and Giving Drink to the Thirsty, Moses Sweetening the Waters of Mara (also known as Moses before the Rock of Horeb) (Seville, Hospital de la Caridad). Visiting the Sick was illustrated with Christ Healing the Paralytic (London, National Gallery), which is considered one of his most beautiful paintings, filled as it is with tender piety and luminous visual poetry. To these years can be added Murillo's meditations on Christ's sufferings, including Christ after the Flagellation (Champaign, IL, Krannert Art Museum; Boston, Museum of Fine Arts). The 1660s also saw Murillo creating some of the most famous examples of his favorite theme: the Immaculate Conception, including the Immaculate Conception of El Escorial (ca. 1665-70, Madrid, Prado), in which Mary's purity is underscored by her childlike innocence. Most of Murillo's portraits were also produced between 1665 and 1675. These include his 1674 Portrait of Nicolas Omazur done in 1674 (Madrid, Prado) and Portrait of Don lustino de Neve (London, National Gallery). Murillo's fame and reputation increased to the point where he was described as the Apelles of Seville by F. de La Torre Farfan in a publication of 1672. His output remained prodigious, including commissions in 1678 for the Convent of San Augustin and for the Hospital del Los Venerables Sacerdotes. That commission included his most famous representation of the Immaculate Conception, known as the Immaculata Soult or the Immaculate Conception of Los Venerables (Madrid, Prado). Here Murillo has managed to conflate the majestic interpretation of his earlier Immaculatas with the new delicacy, vulnerability, and gentleness of his later examples. The Virgin, no longer childlike, is still more youthful, beautiful, and appealing than she is in his earlier examples. In its molten brushwork, wonderfully treated drapery, and lightness of touch, the Immaculata Soult owes a strong debt to van Dyck and is nonetheless a brilliant and original conception. Only his Immaculate Conception of Aranjuez (Madrid, Prado), generally dated to 1675/80, compares closely in feeling. Most of his genre subjects, generally portraying smiling and cheerful peasant children, are dated to the 1670s as well. Although genre subjects are a relatively small part of Murillo's total output, they are an aspect of his oeuvre that has survived changes in taste and are particularly influential for the eighteenth century. Murillo's activities were halted only by his death, reported by his biographer Palomino as caused by a fall from scaffolding while painting The Marriage of St Catherine for the Capuchins of Cdiz. A large unfinished canvas of this subject survives in Cadiz, lending credence to Palomino's account. Departing from the solemnity of Velazquez or the profound mysticism of Zurbara"n, Murillo combined both Flemish and Venetian sources to forge an important link to the eighteenth-century rococo. His Immaculate Conception of the Venerable Brotherhood, with its golden light, airiness, flurry of angels, and wistful and dainty sentimentality, anticipates rococo sensibilities and fulfills the decorative as well as popular appeal such subjects must have had. Nearly 450 surviving works are accepted in a recent monograph as autograph work out of a catalogue of 3,085 items once attributed to him. Many of these are the numerous copies after accepted works, not only indicating Murillo's great popularity in his lifetime but also suggesting an active studio. From the time of his death, Murillo's fame spread beyond the boundaries of Spain, so that by the eighteenth century his works were fetching remarkably high prices in Paris and London. |
Samples of Work
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