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😉 Greetings to readers and art lovers! In the article “Bartolome Esteban Murillo: Pictures and Biography” about the life of the Spanish painter of the “Golden Age”, the head of the Seville school.
Bartolome Esteban Murillo, as a follower of realistic painting of the Baroque era, was the last representative of this trend. He was, so to speak, the youngest of the mastodon painters that preceded him.
Bartolome Esteban Murillo: biography
Father Bartolomé was a well-known barber in Seville, so his family did not live in poverty and could afford to rent a monastery house for living.
Bartolomé was born in December 1617. At the age of eleven he was orphaned. When he was 10 years old, his father died, and a year later his mother followed her husband. Bartolome was given to his aunt, his mother’s sister, for upbringing.
To develop his creative abilities, the aunt attached her nephew to the workshop of Juan de Castillo, under whose influence he began to paint. The young man’s first drawings were dry and dark.
The arrival in the city of Pedro de Moya, a Spanish painter and student of the famous van Dyck, turned Bartolomé’s idea of painting techniques and the properties of paints upside down.
Travel to Madrid
A significant step for the formation of Murillo as a painter who retreated from the Caravaggian cloning was his journey to Madrid. There Bartolomé studied the works of Titian and Rubens, copied canvases in palaces, filling his hand.
Life in the Spanish capital lasted until 1645. This date became a turning point not only in the artist’s work. Paintings depicting children appeared in his collection, for example, “Beggar Boy” (1645), “Boy with a Dog” (1650), etc.
“Boy with a Dog” (between 1655-1660). St. Petersburg, Hermitage
There have been changes in the personal life of the young master. At the turn of his 30th birthday, Bartolomé married Beatrice Sotomayor y Cabrera. The marriage was very fruitful and brought the couple five children. Apparently, this fact formed the basis for the execution of paintings depicting boys.
Murillo’s paintings with religious and everyday subjects
Among the artist’s works, most were devoted to church images. Due to his penchant for religious subjects, Murillo received numerous orders from temples and churches. So, on his return to Seville in 1645, the artist received the assignment of the Franciscan monastery.
The Holy Family (1660)
Along with canvases of religious history (“Annunciation” (1660 – 65), “Christ the Good Shepherd” and “Holy Family” (1660), in his work a considerable number of everyday works and portraits (“An old woman with a spinning wheel”, “Prodigal the son is feasting with courtesans ”and others).
And those other paintings by the master are written flawlessly, both in composition and from the technical side. Bartolomé’s trademark was a brown-ocher mood. Always warm tones, a lot of ocher and vanilla, rich brush strokes and dynamic plots.
The character of the heroes was guessed in the transferred facial expressions and hand movements, small paraphernalia – coins or fruits in hands. In his paintings, the artist has always reflected the comfort, charm and warmth of the hearth.
After depression and sorrow
The growing pace of work was interrupted by the death of his beloved wife (January 1, 1664). Over the next two years, the master worked much slower than usual. But soon he received an order to decorate the altar wall of the temple of Santa Maria la Blanca.
A gigantic amount of work brought the artist back to normal, after a long depression and grief. He later joined the Brotherhood of Mercy.
Due to his calm and kind character, after 1665, Murillo gave a free slave, born and raised before his eyes. He continued to lead a moderate lifestyle and create.
Death
In 1682 Bartolomé left Seville, going to work in a Capuchin monastery in Cadiz. He painted the altarpiece “The Teaching of St. Catherine”, standing on the scaffolding. One careless movement and the master fell. The fall turned out to be fatal. On April 3, 1682, the great painter died.
About the paintings of the great master
Bartolome Esteban Murillo left behind a large collection of paintings from the late Baroque era. The largest exhibition is kept in the Prado Museum in Madrid. In total, Murillo’s works, according to various sources, range from 450 to 481.
In the Hermitage of St. Petersburg, there are two dozen paintings by this remarkable painter, including several priceless pearls of his work, known to many from reproductions, the painting “Boy with a Dog”, “Rest of the Holy Family on the Way to Egypt” and others.
“Rest of St. Families on the way to Egypt ”, 1665. St. Petersburg, Hermitage
It is difficult to look away from his paintings, there is so much spontaneity in them if the master depicts children. If you have a picture on a religious theme in front of you, then you want to carefully discern every detail. Since any stroke carries with it mystery and at the same time illumination.
Stopping in front of these canvases, it is as if you are captured by them, and it is difficult to move on to another canvas. And then for a long time you are impressed by what you saw. The soul seems to be cleansed from contact with the Beautiful.
Earthly problems and worries become insignificant. You look at them from the unattainable height of Real Art.
Video: “Bartolome Esteban Murillo: paintings”.
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