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| Exhibition of Works by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
Focuses on a Crucial Period in His Career |
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A visitor
looks at "Joven y la mujer Pitufar" which is part of the exhibition
that opened at the Museum of Fine Arts in Seville. EFE/Jose Manuel
Vidal.
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SEVILLE.- Curated
by Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez and Benito Navarrete, the exhibition
will include fifty or so works by the young Murillo (Seville,
1617-82) from a crucial period in his career, one
represented—through some particularly fine works—in the collections
of both Bilbao and Seville Fine Arts Museums: St. Peter Weeping
(c.1650-55) and St. Lesmes (c. 1655) in Bilbao, and St Francis
(c.1645-50) and San Jerome (c. 1665-75) in Seville. Around 1640
Murillo achieved his first artistic successes, launching a career in
the ascendant. During this early period Murillo produced an oeuvre
marked by a taste for tenebrism and naturalism, a reflection of the
durable influence of masters from the previous generation, like
Zurbarán and Ribera, particularly in the way he plays with the light
and dark and his close observation of his subject.
Bartolomé
Esteban Murillo, was a Spanish painter, one of the most important
figures in Baroque painting in Spain. Although he is best known for
his religious works, Murillo also produced a considerable number of
paintings of contemporary women and children. These lively, realist
portraits of flower girls, street urchins, and beggars constitute an
extensive and appealing record of the everyday life of his times.
Murillo was born in Seville, the youngest son in a family of
fourteen. His father was the barber and surgeon Gaspar Esteban, and
his mother's name was María Pérez Murillo. His parents died when
Murillo was still very young, and the artist was largely brought up
by his aunt and uncle. Murillo married Beatriz Cabrera in 1645;
their first child, named Maria, was born shortly after their
marriage. The mother and daughter became the subjects of two of his
paintings; Madonna of the Rosary and Madonna and Child.
Murillo began his art studies under Juan del Castillo in
Seville. Murillo became familiar with Flemish painting; the great
commercial importance of Seville at the time ensured that he was
also subject to influences from other regions. His first works were
influenced by Zurbarán, Jusepe de Ribera and Alonso Cano, and he
shared their strongly realist approach. As his painting developed,
his more important works evolved towards the polished style that
suited the bourgeois and aristocratic tastes of the time,
demonstrated especially in his Roman Catholic religious works.
In 1642, at the age of 26 he moved to Madrid, where he most
likely became familiar with the work of Velázquez, and would have
seen the work of Venetian and Flemish masters in the royal
collections; the rich colors and softly modeled forms of his
subsequent work suggest these influences.[1] He returned to Seville
in 1645. In that year, he painted thirteen canvases for the
monastery of St. Francisco el Grande in Seville which gave his
reputation a well-deserved boost. Following the completion of a pair
of pictures for the Seville Cathedral, he began to specialise in the
themes that brought him his greatest successes, the Virgin and
Child, and the Immaculate Conception.
After another period
in Madrid, from 1658 to 1660, he returned to Seville, where he died.
Here he was one of the founders of the Academia de Bellas Artes
(Academy of Art), sharing its direction, in 1660, with the
architect, Francisco Herrera the Younger. This was his period of
greatest activity, and he received numerous important commissions,
among them the altarpieces for the Augustinian monastery, the
paintings for Santa María la Blanca (completed in 1665), and others.
Murillo had many pupils and followers. The prolific
imitation of his paintings ensured his reputation in Spain and fame
throughout Europe, and prior to the 19th century his work was more
widely known than that of any other Spanish artist.
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