The Story of Seville Part 12

The influence of the two years Murillo had spent in Madrid can readily be traced in these early paintings. The outlines are distinct and in some cases hard; while the tone of the shadows, and the treatment of the lights follows the method of the realists, and affords little or no sign of the melting indecision of outline, the manner so prevalent in his later work. The pictures belonging to this period are said to be painted in the _Estilo Frio_, or cold style. The best instance in Seville, is La Anunciacion de Nuestra Senora, in the Museo.

In his later work Murillo abandoned the influence of Ribera, Zurbaran, Velazquez and the Spanish realists; he developed a manner more personal, and more in harmony with the mystic trend of his emotions. His outlines became softer, and his forms rounder, while his colour began to a.s.sume tones of melting transparency. A Spaniard writing of his work at this period remarks that his flesh tints seem to be painted '_con sangre y leche_' (with blood and milk).

The first picture painted in this manner, which is known as the _Estilo Caledo_ (warm style), is Nuestra Senora de la Concepcion, executed for the brotherhood of the True Cross, in 1655, for the sum of 2500 _reals_.

To this period belong the fine portraits of St. Leander and St. Isidore, in the _Sacristia Mayor_, of the Cathedral; the Nativity, which formerly hung behind the high altar, until it was carried away by Soult; and the celebrated St. Anthony of Padua, receiving the infant Christ, still to be seen in the _Cap del Bautistero_.

The portraits of St. Leander and St. Isidore are among the finest instances of the powers of Murillo. All the accessories are painted with the utmost care, and perhaps the only criticism which can be offered is that the figures are rather short. These portraits must be cla.s.sified with Murillo's fine _genre_ studies--those charming representations of gipsy life and beggar boys, by which he is largely known in this country, but of which Seville unfortunately possesses not a single example.

The Nativity of the Virgin was received by Seville with a burst of enthusiasm. The St. Anthony was painted in 1565, the Chapter paying for it the sum of 10,000 _reals_. The light in the dim chapel renders it very obscure. A brown-frocked monk kneels at a table, and gazes at the Heavenly Child, who descends towards him. Upon the table rests a vase of lilies, and the story runs that they were so life-like that the birds, flying around the Cathedral, used to come and peck at them, while Murillo was engaged in painting them. The picture was restored, and almost repainted in 1833, which has doubtless done much to destroy its charm.

Shortly after this time Murillo adopted his third and last manner, known as "el Vaporoso," in which the outlines are entirely lost, obliterated in a misty effect of light and shade.

The first pictures painted in this method were executed for the Church of Santa Maria la Blanca, to ill.u.s.trate the legend of our Lady of the Snow. They were carried away by the French and placed in the Louvre; but were rescued, and are now in the Academia de Belles Artes, at Madrid.

The Virgin, appearing to the wife of a Roman senator, and telling her where she will find the patch of snow upon which to erect a church to her honour, is one of the loveliest of Murillo's conceptions.

The great cycle of pictures for the Hospital de la Caridad were painted about this time, being completed between the years 1660 and 1674. Three of the pictures stand in their original position, Moses striking the Rock, The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes, and the Charity of St. Juan de Dios. The figure of the Prophet, in Moses striking the Rock, Sir W.

Stirling-Maxwell says, 'is one of impressive dignity.' Clad in pale yellow robe and violet mantle, he occupies the central position in the picture. Behind him stands Aaron, with mystic breastplate, and robe of subdued white. Around the two prophets are grouped numerous figures, men, women and children, all quenching their thirst with feverish eagerness. This has given the picture its name of La Sed (the thirst).

The figures bear no resemblance to the men and women of Palestine, they are ordinary Spanish peasants, such as Murillo would see in the streets around him. This custom of introducing common types into his scriptural compositions, Professor Carl Justi considers as one proof of Murillo's genius. The personality of Christ, in the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes, lacks the force of the ancient prophet, and the work as a whole is inferior to its companion picture. The Angel appearing to St. Juan de Dios, as he sinks under the burden of a sick man, well represents the later manner of Murillo. In colour this picture is good, the tones are finer than in either of the other works. The five remaining pictures, which completed this great series, were carried away by Soult. The finest, St. Elizabeth of Hungary washing the Feet of Beggars, is now at Madrid. The Return of the Prodigal is in the collection of the Duke of Sutherland. Two others, The Healing of the Paralytic, and Abraham with the Angels, are in England, while the last, St. Peter released from Prison, is in St. Petersburg.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE GUARDIAN ANGEL

_Murillo_]

The final work of importance undertaken by Murillo, was the execution of a series of twenty pictures for the Capuchin Convent of the Franciscans.

The convent was destroyed in 1835, when its treasures were scattered.

The greater number of the pictures are now in the Museo; the immense altar-piece of the Porciuncula is in Madrid; while the Angel de la Guarda is in the _Sacristia de los Calices_, having been presented to the Cathedral, by the Franciscans, in 1814. There is great beauty in this composition; which was founded upon the text, Matthew xviii. 10.

An angel, in a rich yellow robe and royal purple mantle, points with one hand to heaven, while with the other she tenderly leads a lovely child.

It is painted with great lightness of touch; the diaphanous drapery of the child's dress has a transparency of texture rarely seen in Spanish pictures.

The life of Murillo was nearing its completion. He worked until its very close; and devotion to the art he loved was the immediate cause of his death. In 1678 he painted for the Hospital de los Venerables a very fine Conception, which has since been lost; he also executed two pictures for the Augustine Convent, now in the Museo. In 1681 he was summoned to Cadiz to paint an altar-piece for the Capuchins of that city. The work was nearly completed, when he fell from the scaffolding, upon which he was standing in order to reach upper portions of the picture. He received an internal injury, and returned to Seville to die, on April 3, 1682.

The whole city sorrowed for his loss. His obsequies were conducted with great magnificence. His bier was carried by four marquesses and four knights. He was buried in the Church of Santa Cruz, beneath his favourite picture, The Descent from the Cross, by Pedro Campana. The spot was marked by a simple marble slab, upon which was engraved, according to his own desire, his name, the figure of a skeleton, and the words '_Vive Meritorus_.'

The position Murillo occupies in the heart of Andalusia is almost unprecedented. To this day a picture of great merit is in Seville termed a 'Murillo.' What Cervantes was in literature Murillo was in art. Sir David Wilkie justly remarks, in his comparison of Velazquez and Murillo, 'Velazquez by his high technical excellence is the delight of all artists; Murillo, adapting the higher subjects of art to the commonest understanding of the people, seems, of all painters, the most universal favourite.'

Artist. Pictures. Where Situated.

Velazquez (?) Water Carrier. House of Murillo.

(1599-1660).

" A few doubtful Private Collections.

works.

THE PRINc.i.p.aL WORKS OF MURILLO IN SEVILLE CATHEDRAL.

Artist. Pictures. Where Situated.

Murillo Angel de la Guarda. Sacristia de los (1617-1682). Calices.

" SS. Leander and Sacristia Mayor.

Isidore.

" Conception. Sala Capitular.

" St. Anthony of Cap del Bautisterio.

Padua.

" Moses striking the Hospital de la Rock. Caridad.

" Miracle of the Ditto.

Loaves and Fishes.

" Charity of St. Juan Ditto.

de Dios.

" Seventeen works Museo.

from the Capuchin Convent, and other works.

Other Pictures in many of the Churches.

CHAPTER X

_The Pictures in the Museo_

'The office of art is to educate the perception of beauty.'

EMERSON.

In the south-western quarter of Seville, in the midst of a palm-shaded _plaza_, stands the Museo Provincial, a picturesque structure, whose history dates back to the thirteenth century. It was originally a monastery, founded by the pious San Fernando, in the year 1249, for the monks of the order of the Merced, whose duty it was to redeem the Christian captives taken from the Infidel. Sumptuously rebuilt by Carlos V., it was a religious house of great wealth during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

Little of the former glory now remains. The convent was destroyed, and the monks expelled in the year 1835. New uses were found for the ancient edifice. The Roman and Visigothic relics were brought from Italica, and stored within the quiet cloisters. Numerous pictures, rescued from the convents and churches by the efforts of Dean Manuel Lopez Cepero, were hung upon the walls of the old convent church. The sole relic of the banished order of the Merceds are the emblazoned arms of the brotherhood, which may still be seen upon the rich and curiously-panelled doors.

The majority of the pictures hang in the Salon de Murillo, the name now given to the convent church. The collection cannot be taken as representative of the genius of Seville. There are numerous examples of the work of Murillo, more than half of the room is occupied by the canvases of the Sevillian favourite. There are some fine instances of the work of Zurbaran. The elder Herrera and Valdes Leal are also well represented. But there are only two specimens of Luis de Vargas and Juan de las Roelas, while the works of Velazquez, Alonso Cano, Nunez, Campana and several other artists are entirely absent. The s.p.a.ce which the compositions of these masters might have occupied is filled with comparatively worthless pictures, painted by the decadent artists, who lived during the eighteenth century.

The pictures[D] are well lighted, in a tolerable state of preservation, and are arranged with some method.

The compositions of Murillo immediately attract attention. There are more than twenty in number, almost all of which are ranged in the nave of the Salon. The seventeen pictures, painted for the Capuchin Convent, are the most important. The finest is Santo Tomas de Villanueva socorrierdo a los pobres[E] (rendering succour to the poor). Murillo esteemed this picture above all his works, and was wont to call it _su lienzo_ (his own picture). In literary conception the work has much merit. It is executed in the misty, _vaporoso_ manner. The light is skilfully handled and the figure of the saint is well realised. Robed in black, and bearing a white mitre in his hand, he stands at the door of his Cathedral, ministering to the needs of a beggar; whose feeble form, clad in filthy rags, affords a fine contrast with the calm beauty of the saint. Penurious men and women, waiting to be relieved, stand grouped in the foreground. The little urchin, who exultingly exhibits the _maravedis_ which have fallen to his share, is a typical Murillo beggar-boy.

The two fine pictures of San Antonio with the infant Jesus are both instances of Murillo's latest manner. A similar picture is the Virgin revealing herself to San Felix de Cantalicio. The outlines in all three pictures are obliterated, lost in a haze of misty vapour. The deposition of the drapery in St. Leander and St. Buenaventura is admirable. The picture of Santas Justas y Rufina, supporting the famous Giralda Tower, to guard it from the ravages of the tempest, should be compared with the picture of the same saints by Francisco Goya, in the _Sacristia de los Calices_, in the Cathedral. In the composition of Goya we have an instance of a saintly subject treated in a realistic manner; Murillo follows the accustomed mode and depicts the maidens as holy saints, crowned with halos of glory.

The fable that the picture of La Virgen con el Nino Jesus was painted upon a serviette has no foundation, as can readily be seen by examining the panel upon which the study is painted. The story, which is very widely credited, says that the cook at the Capuchin Convent, having rendered Murillo some service, was asked by him what recompense he desired. He at once craved a sketch from the hand of the great master.

Murillo, according to the fable, took the serviette which the cook was carrying, and with a few rapid touches of his brush created the picture, which is still noteworthy for the brilliancy of its tints.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE CONCEPTION

_Murillo_]

One of the sweetest of Murillo's Madonnas may be seen in El Nacimiento de Jesucristo (The Nativity). Cean Bermudez praises this picture very highly, while Antonio Ponz, a later Spanish critic, says that the stream of light which floods the picture is worthy of Correggio. There are four Immaculate Conceptions. In one the Virgin is supposed to be a portrait of the daughter of Murillo. Possibly the finest is the one termed 'la Grande,' although the difference between the pictures is very slight.

At the farther end of the nave, close to the works of Murillo, is El Martirio de San Andres, by Juan de las Roelas, a huge composition, crowded with numberless figures. In spite of this defect the picture has power. The expression of the faces is individual and life-like, and the form of the martyr, bound to his double-cross, is well drawn. The chief merit of the work rests in its colour, which is Venetian in many of its tones. Very beautiful is the picture of Santa Ana teaching the Virgin to read. The drawing, especially of the hands, is defective, but the flesh tints are full of rich warmth, indeed, the colouring of the whole picture can hardly be too highly praised.

Near to the Martyrdom of St. Andrew hang the Vision de San Basilio and the Apoteosis of San Hermenegildo, two works of great size, by Herrera el Viego. The latter is the finer composition as the canvas of the Vision is overcrowded and the interest of the work is not sufficiently centralised. San Hermenegildo is a noteworthy instance of the power of Herrera, and exemplifies his vigorous individual style. The favoured saint of Seville ascends to heaven in a flood of yellow glory, which reveals the steel blue of his cuira.s.s, and the rich crimson of his flowing mantle. Two angels bear the axe and chain, the trophies of his triumph; while all around cherubs hover, waiting to crown with flowers the newly-martyred saint. Beneath are three figures--a fair-haired, kneeling boy, the son of San Hermenegildo, St. Isidore, robed and mitred, and King Leovigild, the Visigoth, who imprisoned and killed his brother for his defection from the Arian faith.