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MURILLO, BARTOLOME ESTEBAN (1617-1682)
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See also:MURILLO, BARTOLOME ESTEBAN (1617-1682) , See also:Spanish painter, son of Gaspar Esteban Murillo and Maria See also:Perez, was See also:born at See also:Seville in 1617, probably at the end of the See also:year, as he was baptized on the first of See also:January 1618. Esteban-Murillo appears to have been the See also:compound surname of the See also:father, but some inquirers consider that, in accordance with a frequent Andalusian See also:custom, the painter assumed the surname of his maternal grandmother, See also:Elvira Murillo, in addition to that of his father. His parents (the father an See also:artisan of a humble class), having been struck with the sketches which the boy was accustomed to make, placed him under the care of their distant relative, Juan del See also:Castillo, the painter. Juan, a correct draughtsman and dry colourist, taught him all the See also:mechanical parts of his profession with extreme care, and Murillo proved himself an See also:apt See also:pupil. The See also:artistic appliances of his See also:master's studio were not abundant, and were often of the simplest See also:kind. A few casts, some stray fragments of See also:sculpture and a See also:lay figure formed the See also:principal See also:aids available for the Sevillian student of See also:art. A living See also:model was a luxury generally beyond the means of the school, but on See also:great occasions the youths would See also:strip in turn and proffer an See also:arm or a See also:leg to be ,studied by their See also:fellows. See also:Objects of still See also:life, however, were much studied by Murillo, and he See also:early learnt to See also:hit off the ragged urchins of Seville. Murillo in a few years painted as well as his master, and as stiffly. His two pictures of the Virgin, executed during this See also:period, show how thoroughly he had mastered the See also:style, with all its defects. Castillo was a kind See also:man, but his removal to See also:Cadiz in 1639–164o threw his favourite pupil upon his own resources. The See also:fine school of See also:Zurbaran was too expensive for the poor lad; his parents were either dead or too poor to help him, and he was compelled to See also:earn his See also:bread by See also:painting rough pictures for the " feria " or public See also:fair of Seville. The religious daubs exposed at that mart were generally of as See also:low an See also:order as the prices paid for them. A " pintura de la feria " (a picture for the fair) was a proverbial expression for an execrably See also:bad one; yet the See also:street painters who thronged the See also:market-See also:place with their "clumsy .See also:saints and unripe Madonnas" not unfrequently See also:rose to be able and even famous artists. .This rough-and-ready practice, partly for the market-place, partly for converts in See also:Mexico and See also:Peru, for whom Madonnas and popular saints were produced and shipped off by the dozen, doubtless increased Murillo's See also:manual dexterity; but, if we may See also:judge from the picture of the " Virgin and See also:Child" shown in the Murillo-See also:room at Seville as belonging to this period, he made little improvement
in colouring or in See also:general strength of See also:design. Struck by the favourable See also:change which travel had wrought upon the style of his See also:brother artist Pedro de Moya, Murillo in 1642 resolved to make a See also:journey to See also:Flanders or See also:Italy. Having bought a large quantity of See also:canvas, he cut it into squares of different sizes, which he converted into pictures of a kind likely to sell. The See also:American traders bought up his pieces, and he found himself sufficiently See also:rich to carry out his design. He placed his See also:sister, who was dependent on him, under the care of some See also:friends, and without divulging his plans to any one set out for See also:Madrid. On reaching the See also:capital he waited on See also:Velazquez, his See also:fellow-townsman—then at the See also:summit of his See also:fortune—and asked for some introduction to friends in See also:Rome. The master liked the youth, and offered him lodging in his own See also:house, and proposed to procure him See also:admission to the royal galleries of the capital. Murillo accepted the offer, and here enjoyed the masterpieces of Italy and Flanders without travelling beyond the walls of Madrid. The next two years were chiefly spent in copying from See also:Ribera, Vandyck and Velazquez; and in 1644 he so astonished the latter with some of his efforts that they were submitted to the See also: The friars of the See also:convent of See also:San See also:Francesco in Seville had about this See also:time determined to adorn the walls of their small See also:cloister in a manner worthy of their patron See also:saint. But the brotherhood had no See also:money; and after endless begging they found themselves incapable of employing an artist of name to execute the task. Murillo was needy, and offered his services; after balancing their own poverty against his obscurity the friars bade him begin. Murillo covered the walls with eleven large pictures of remarkable See also:power and beauty—displaying by turns the- strong colouring of Ribera, the lifelike truthfulness of Velazquez, and the sweetness of Vandyck. Among them were to be found representations of San Francesco, of San Diego, of See also:Santa See also:Clara and of San Gil. These pictures were executed in his earliest style, commonly called his frio or See also:cold style. It was based chiefly on Ribera and See also:Caravaggio, and was dark with a decided outline. This rich collection is no longer in Seville; See also:Marshal See also:Soult carried off ten of the See also:works. The fame of these productions soon got abroad, and " El Claustro Chico " swarmed daily with artists and critics. Murillo was no longer friendless and unknown. The rich and the See also:noble of Seville overwhelmed him with their commissions and their praises. In 1648 Murillo married a wealthy See also:lady of See also:rank, Dona Beatriz de See also:Cabrera y Sotomayor, of the neighbourhood of Seville, and his house soon became the favourite resort of artists and connoisseurs. About this time he was associated with the landscape-painter Yriarte—the two artists interchanging figures and landscapes for their respective works; but they did not finally agree, and the co-operation came to an end. Murillo now painted the well-known " See also:Flight into See also:Egypt," and shortly afterwards changed his earliest style of painting for his calido or warm style. His See also:drawing was still well defined, but his outlines became softer and his figures rounder, and his colouring gained in warmth and transparency. His first picture of this style, according to Cean See also:Bermudez, was a See also:representation of " Our Lady of the Conception," and was painted in 1652 for the brotherhood of the True See also:Cross; he received for it 2500 reals (£26). In 16J5 he executed his two famous paintings of " San Leandro " and " San Isidoro " at the order of See also:Don Juan Federigo, See also:archdeacon of See also:Carmona, which are now in the See also:cathedral of Seville. These are two noble portraits, finished with great care and admirable effect, but the critics complain of the figures being rather See also:short. His next picture, the " Nativity of the Virgin," painted for the See also:chapter, is regarded as one of the most delightful specimens of his calido style. In the following year (1656) the same See also:body gave him an order for a vast picture of San See also:Antonio de See also:Padua, for which he received 1o,000 reals (£104). This is one of his most celebrated performances, and still hangs in the See also:baptistery of the cathedral. It was " repaired " in 1833; the grandeur of the design, however, and the singular richnessof the colouring may still be traced. The same year saw him engaged on four large semicircular pictures, designed by his friend and patron Don Justino Neve y Yevenes, to adorn the walls of the See also: The one represents the wealthy but childless Roman senator and his lady asleep and dreaming; the other exhibits the devout pair See also:relating their See also:dream to See also:Pope Liberius. Of these two noble paintings the Dream is the finer; and in it is to be noticed the commencement of Murillo's third and last style, known as the vaporoso or vapoury. It should be noted, however, that the three styles are not strictly separable into date-periods; for the painter alternated the styles accordingly to his subject-See also:matter or the See also:mood of his See also:inspiration, the calido being the most frequent. In the vaporoso method the well-marked outlines and careful drawing of his former styles disappear, the outlines are lost in the misty blending of the See also:light and shade, and the general finish betrays more haste than was usual with Murillo. After many changes of fortune, these two pictures now hang in the See also:Academy at Madrid. The remaining pieces executed for this small church were a " Virgin of the Conception " and a figure of " Faith." Soult laid his hands on these also, and they have not been recovered. In 1658 Murillo undertook and consummated a task which had hitherto baffled all the artists of See also:Spain, and even See also:royalty itself. This was the establishing of a public academy of art. By See also:superior tact and See also:good See also:temper he overcame the vanity of See also:Valdes Leal and the presumption of the younger See also:Herrera, and secured their co-operation. The Academy of Seville was accordingly opened for the first time in January 166o, and Murillo and the second Herrera were chosen presidents. The former continued to See also:direct it during the following year; but the calls of his studio induced him to leave it in other hands. It was then flourishing, but not for See also:long. Passing over some See also:half-length pictures of saints and a dark-haired Madonna, painted in 1668 for the chapter-room of the cathedral of his native See also:city, we enter upon the most splendid period of Murillo's career. In 1661 Don See also:Miguel Mariam Vicentelo de Leca, who had recently turned to a life of sanctity from one of the wildest profligacy, resolved to raise money for the restoration of the dilapidated See also:Hospital de la Caridad, of whose pious gild he was himself a member. Manua commissioned his friend Murillo to paint eleven pictures for this edifice of San Jorge. Three of these pieces represented the " See also:Annunciation," the " See also:Infant Saviour," and the " Infant St See also: Murillo himself was wont to See also:call it " su lienzo " (his own picture). Another little piece of extraordinary
merit, which once hung in this church, is the " Virgin of the Napkin," believed to have been painted on a " servilleta " and presented to the See also:cook of the Capuchin brotherhood as a memorial of the artist's See also:pencil.
In 167o Murillo is said to have declined an invitation to court, preferring to labour among the See also: Murillo has always been one of the most popular of painters—not in Spain alone. His works show great technical attainment without much style, and a strong feeling for See also:ordinary nature add for truthful or sentimental expression without lofty beauty or ideal See also:elevation. His ecstasies of Madonnas and Saints are the themes of some of his most celebrated achievements. Take as an example the " Immaculate Conception " (or " See also:Assumption of the Virgin," for the titles may, with reference to Murillo's treatments of this subject, almost be interchanged) in the Louvre, a picture for which, on its See also:sale from the Soult collection, one of the largest prices on See also:record was given in 1852, some £24,600. His subjects may be divided into two great See also:groups—the scenes from low life (which were a new experiment in Spanish art, so far as the subjects of See also:children are concerned), and the Scriptural, legendary and religious works. The former, of which some salient specimens are in the See also:Dulwich See also:Gallery, are, although undoubtedly truthful, neither ingenious not sympathetic; sordid unsightliness and roguish squalor are their foundation. Works of this class belong mostly to the earlier years of Murillo's practice. The subjects in which the painter most excels are crowded compositions in which some See also:act of saintliness, involving the ascetic or self-mortifying See also:element, is being performed—subjects which, while repulsive in some of their details, emphasize the broadly human and the expressly See also:Catholic conceptions of life. A famous example is the picture, now in the Madrid Academy, of St Elizabeth of Hungary washing patients afflicted -with the scab or itch, and hence commonly named " El Tinoso." Technically considered, it unites his three styles of painting, more especially the cold and the warm. His power of giving See also:atmosphere to combined groups of figures is one of the marked characteristics of Murillo's art; and he may be said to have excelled in this respect all his predecessors or See also:con-temporaries of whatever school. Seville must still be visited by persons who wish to study Murillo thoroughly. A large number of the works which used to adorn this city have, however, been transported else-whither. In the Prado Museum at Madrid are See also:forty-five specimens of Murillo—the " Infant See also:Christ and the Baptist " (named " Los Ninos della Concha "), " St Ildefonso vested with a See also:Chasuble by the Madonna," &c.; in the Museo della See also:Trinidad, " Christ and the Virgin appearing to St See also:Francis in a Cavern " (animmense See also:composition), and various others. In the See also:National See also:MURNER 37 Gallery, See also:London, the See also:chief example is the " See also:Holy See also:Family "; this was one of the master's latest works, painted in Cadiz. In public galleries in the See also:United See also:Kingdom there are altogether twenty-fou_ examples by Murillo; in those of Spain, seventy-one. Murillo, who was the last pre-eminent painter of Seville, was an indefatigable and prolific worker, hardly leaving his painting-room See also:save for his devotions in church; he realized large prices, according to the See also:standard of his time, and made a great fortune. His See also:character is recorded as amiable and soft, yet See also:independent, subject also to sudden impulses, not unmixed with See also:passion. See See also:Stirling, See also:Annals of the Artists of Spain (3 vols., London, 1848); See also:Richard See also:Ford, Handbook for Spain (London, 1855); See also:Curtis, See also:Catalogue of the Works of Velasquez and Murillo (1883); L. Alfonso, Murillo, el hombre, &c. (1886); C. Justi, Murillo (illustrated, 1892) ; P. Lefort, Murillo et sec eiives (1892) ; F. M. Tubino, Murillo, su epoca, &c. (1864; Eng. trans., 1879); Dr G. C. See also:Williamson, Murilla (1902); C. S. Ricketts, The Prado (1903). . (W. M. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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