Bartolomé Esteban Murillo

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
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