Bartolomé Esteban Murillo

Baptized Jan. 1, 1618, in Sevilla; died there Apr. 3, 1682. Spanish painter.

Murillo studied and worked in Sevilla; he was one of the founders (1660) and the first president of a local academy of painting. Already in Murillo’s early works, which showed the influence of Caravaggism, religious scenes were presented as events from folk life. In the 1650’s, Murillo began to use a golden chiaroscuro, adopting a more picturesque style (especially in landscape backgrounds). His religious compositions, including scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary (The Flight Into Egypt, 1665–70, Hermitage, Leningrad), depicted the national type of Spanish woman with penetrating lyricism but were frequently marked by idealization and sentimentality.

The realistic features of Murillo’s work were manifested most fully in his innovative genre paintings, for instance, in a series of paintings that depicted with good-natured humor the life of Sevillian ragamuffins (Boys With Fruits, 1645–54, Old Pinakothek, Munich).