in colouring or in general strength of design. Struck by the favourable change which travel had wrought upon the style of his brother artist Pedro de Moya, Murillo in 1642 resolved to make a journey to Flanders or Italy. Having bought a large quantity of canvas, he cut it into squares of different sizes, which he converted into pictures of a kind likely to sell. The American traders bought up his pieces, and he found himself sufficiently rich to carry out his design. He placed his sister, who was dependent on him, under the care of some friends, and without divulging his plans to any one set out for Madrid. On reaching the capital he waited on Velazquez, his fellow-townsman—then at the summit of his fortune—and asked for some introduction to friends in Rome. The master liked the youth, and offered him lodging in his own house, and proposed to procure him admission to the royal galleries of the capital. Murillo accepted the offer, and here enjoyed the masterpieces of Italy and Flanders without travelling beyond the walls of Madrid. The next two years were chiefly spent in copying from Ribera, Vandyck and Velazquez; and in 1644 he so astonished the latter with some of his efforts that they were submitted to the king and the court. His patron now urged him to go to Rome, and offered him letters to smooth his way; but Murillo preferred returning to his sister and his native Seville.
The friars of the convent of San Francesco in Seville had about this time determined to adorn the walls of their small cloister in a manner worthy of their patron saint. But the brotherhood had no money; and after endless begging they found themselves incapable of employing an artist of name to execute the task. Murillo was needy, and offered his services; after balancing their own poverty against his obscurity the friars bade him begin. Murillo covered the walls with eleven large pictures of remarkable power and beauty—displaying by turns the strong colouring of Ribera, the lifelike truthfulness of Velazquez, and the sweetness of Vandyck. Among them were to be found representations of San Francesco, of San Diego, of Santa Clara and of San Gil. These pictures were executed in his earliest style, commonly called his frio or cold style. It was based chiefly on Ribera and Caravaggio, and was dark with a decided outline. This rich collection is no longer in Seville; Marshal Soult carried off ten of the works. The fame of these productions soon got abroad, and “El Claustro Chico” swarmed daily with artists and critics. Murillo was no longer friendless and unknown. The rich and the noble of Seville overwhelmed him with their commissions and their praises.
In 1648 Murillo married a wealthy lady of rank, Dona Beatriz de Cabrera y Sotomayor, of the neighbourhood of Seville, and his house soon became the favourite resort of artists and connoisseurs. About this time he was associated with the landscape-painter Yriarte—the two artists interchanging figures and landscapes for their respective works; but they did not finally agree, and the co-operation came to an end. Murillo now painted the well-known “Flight into Egypt,” and shortly afterwards changed his earliest style of painting for his calido or warm style. His drawing was still well defined, but his outlines became softer and his figures rounder, and his colouring gained in warmth and transparency. His first picture of this style, according to Cean Bermudez, was a representation of “Our Lady of the Conception,” and was painted in 1652 for the brotherhood of the True Cross; he received for it 2500 reals (£26). In 1655 he executed his two famous paintings of “San Leandro” and “San Isidoro” at the order of Don Juan Federigo, archdeacon of Carmona, which are now in the cathedral of Seville. These are two noble portraits, finished with great care and admirable effect, but the critics complain of the figures being rather short. His next picture, the “Nativity of the Virgin,” painted for the chapter, is regarded as one of the most delightful specimens of his calido style. In the following year (1656) the same body gave him an order for a vast picture of San Antonio de Padua, for which he received 10,000 reals (£104). This is one of his most celebrated performances, and still hangs in the baptistery of the cathedral. It was “repaired” in 1833; the grandeur of the design, however, and the singular richness of the colouring may still be traced. The same year saw him engaged on four large semicircular pictures, designed by his friend and patron Don Justino Neve y Yevenes, to adorn the walls of the church of Santa Maria la Blanca. The first two (now in Madrid) were meant to illustrate the history of the Festival of Our Lady of the Snow, or the foundation of the Roman basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. The one represents the wealthy but childless Roman senator and his lady asleep and dreaming; the other exhibits the devout pair relating their dream to Pope Liberius. Of these two noble paintings the Dream is the finer,” and in it is to be noticed the commencement of Murillo’s third and last style, known as the vaporoso or vapoury. It should be noted, however, that the three styles are not strictly separable into date-periods; for the painter alternated the styles accordingly to his subject-matter or the mood of his inspiration, the calido being the most frequent. In the vaporoso method the well-marked outlines and careful drawing of his former styles disappear, the outlines are lost in the misty blending of the light and shade, and the general finish betrays more haste than was usual with Murillo. After many changes of fortune, these two pictures now hang in the Academy at Madrid. The remaining pieces executed for this small church were a “Virgin of the Conception” and a figure of “Faith.” Soult laid his hands on these also, and they have not been recovered.
In 1658 Murillo undertook and consummated a task which had hitherto baffled all the artists of Spain, and even royalty itself. This was the establishing of a public academy of art. By superior tact and good temper he overcame the vanity of Valdes Leal and the presumption of the younger Herrera, and secured their co-operation. The Academy of Seville was accordingly opened for the first time in January 1660, and Murillo and the second Herrera were chosen presidents. The former continued to direct it during the following year; but the calls of his studio induced him to leave it in other hands. It was then flourishing, but not for long.
Passing over some half-length pictures of saints and a dark-haired Madonna, painted in 1668 for the chapter-room of the cathedral of his native city, we enter upon the most splendid period of Murillo’s career. In 1661 Don Miguel Mañara Vicentelo de Leca, who had recently turned to a life of sanctity from one of the wildest profligacy, resolved to raise money for the restoration of the dilapidated Hospital de la Caridad, of whose pious gild he was himself a member. Mañara commissioned his friend Murillo to paint eleven pictures for this edifice of San Jorge. Three of these pieces represented the “Annunciation,” the “Infant Saviour,” and the “Infant St John.” The remaining eight are considered Murillo’s masterpieces. They consist of “Moses striking the Rock,” the “Return of the Prodigal,” “Abraham receiving the Three Angels,” the “Charity of San Juan de Dios,” the “Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes,” “Our Lord healing the Paralytic,” “St Peter released from Prison by the Angel,” and “St Elizabeth of Hungary.” These works occupied the artist four years, and in 1674 he received for his eight great pictures 78,115 reals or about £800. The “Moses,” the “Loaves and Fishes,” the “San Juan,” and the three subjects which we have named first, are still at Seville; the French carried off the rest, but the, “St Elizabeth” and the “Prodigal Son” are now back in Spain. For compass and vigour the “Moses” stands first; but the “Prodigal’s Return” and the “St Elizabeth” were considered by Bermudez the most perfect of all as works of art. The front of this famous hospital was also indebted to the genius of Murillo; five large designs in blue glazed tiles were executed from his drawings. He had scarcely completed the undertakings for this edifice when his favourite Franciscans again solicited his aid. He accordingly executed some twenty paintings for the humble little church known as the Convent de los Capucinos. Seventeen of these Capuchin pictures are preserved in the Museum of Seville. Of these the “Charity of St Thomas of Villanueva” is reckoned the best. Murillo himself was wont to call it “su lienzo” (his own picture). Another little piece of extraordinary
