MURILLO
'43
MURNER
Murillo, Bartolome Estkbax, the Titian of Spanish art, was born Jan. 1, 1G18, at Pilas, a small hamlet about five leagues from Seville. Developing at an early age a wonderful proficiency in drawing, he was placed under the instruction of his maternal un- cle, Juan del Castillo, a distinguished historical painter of Seville, who was the preceptor of some of the greatest artists of the Spanish school. In 1G42, Murillo, hav- ing heard of the fame of Diego Velasquez of Madrid, which at this period had reached its zenith, was filled with a desire to study under that master, and conse- quently journeyed to Madrid, where he presented him- self before Velasquez, who, perceiving his merit, not only took Murillo into his academ\', but procured for him the privilege of copying the masterpieces of Rubens, Ti- tian, and Vand3'ck in the royal collection. Here he passed three years in hard study; and in 1645 he re- turned to Seville, where his first work was painted in fresco for the convent of St. Francis. It was a picture consisting of sixteen compartments, in one of which is his celebrated production of St. Thomas de Villunueva distributing A Ims to the Sick and the Poor. At the prin- cipal altar of the same convent is a large picture of the Jubilee of the Porciuncula, representing Christ bearing his cross, and the Virgin interceding for the supplicants, with a group of angels of most extraordinary beauty. These pictures created so much enthusiasm among his countrymen that his fame was at once established, and he immediately received a commission from the mar- quis of Villamansiciue to paint a series of five pictures I'rom the life of David, the landscape backgrounds of which were to be executed by Ignacio Iriate, an emi- nent landscape-painter of Seville. There was a dispute between the two artists as to which part of the pictures should be first completed, Murillo holding very rightly that the backgrounds should be first painted; to this Iriate demurred, and the consequence was Murillo un- dertook to do the whole himself, which he did, changing the life of David to that of Jacob, and producing the famous pictures now in the possession of the marquis de Santiago at Madrid. In the same collection are two others of his finest works, St. Francis Xavier, and St. Joseph ivith the i/ounr/ Saviour. The cathedral of Se- ville contains several of his great pictures, among which are St. Antonio toith the Holy Infant, a glory of angels and a remarkably fine architectural background, the Lminaculate Conception, and portraits of several arch- bishops of Seville. From the St. Anthony picture the figure of the saint was cut in 1874, and brought for sale to this country ; but, falling into the hands of a well- informed party, it was returned, and placed where it properly belongs. The Hospital of Charity contains three admired works, Moses striking the Rock; Christ feeding the jive thousand, and one of St. John supporting a poor old man, aided by an angel, upon whom the saint looks with a beautiful expression of reverence and grati- tude. The altar-piece of the Conception, in the church of San Felipe Neri at Cadiz, and a picture of St. Cathar- ine at the Capuchins, are not only noteworthy for their beauty, but the latter is considered by many as his finest work, although JNIurillo himself alwaj's jjreferred his St. Thomas de Villunueva at Seville. In the chapel of the Nuns of the Angel at Granada is one of his most celebrated pictures, representing the Good Shejiherd. Space does not admit of a full list of Murillo's works, but as a painter of religious subjects he ranks hardly second to Raphael. His pictures of the Virgin, saints, Magdalens, and of Christ, are all so characteristically beautiful and refined, so pure and chaste, that he can be said to have followed no given style, though the color- ing of Titian is perceptible in his works. It is a curi- ous fact that in all jNIurillo's pictures of the Virgin he has never displayed her feet, which in every instance are covered with almost faultless drapery, as if the charms of the holy Mother were too sacred to be made the subject of illustration. This can be said of no other religious painter, and evinces a proof of the purity with
which jMurillo looked upon his art. In ICdO IMurillo founded an academy of art in Seville, and Avas appointed its president, in which oflSce he continued until the year 1682, when he died; his death having been hastened by a fall from a scaffold while engaged in painting the St, Catharine at Cadiz. In the National Gallery of Great Britain are a IJolg Family, and a St. John and the Lamb. Dulwich Gallery contains, among others, Christ with the Lamb; Mystery of the Immaculate Co7iception; Jacob and Rachel; Adoration of the Magi; Two Angels; and a small Immaculate Conception. The Louvre contains a considerable number; the Pinakothek of Munich has some, and in the United States there are supposed to be a few of his works also. See Engl. Cyclojj. s. v. ; Scott, Murillo and the Spanish School of Painting (Lond. 1873, 1 vol. 4to) ; Stirling, Annals of the Artist,s of Spain ; Mrs. Jameson, Legends of the Madonna (Lond. 1857, 1 vol. 8vo), p. 34, 36, 43, 46, 49, etc. ; Jameson and Eastlake, History of Our Lord (Lond. 1864, 2 vols.8vo), i, 138, 153, 155, 167, 273, 285, 292, etc.; ii, 93, 343, 380; Spooner, Biog. Hist, of the Fine A rts, s. v. ; Davies, Life of B. E. Murillo (1819); Biographies of Eminent Men from the \dth Century, vol. ii; Tytler "(Miss), The Old Masters (Bost. 1874), p. 230 ; Eraser's Magazine, April, 1846 ; Blackwood's Magazine, 1845, ii, 420 ; 1849, i, 73, 184; 1853, ii, 103; 1870, ii, 133.