Bartolome Murillo: Success!

"Return of the Prodigal Son" by Bartolome Murillo

"Bartolome Murillo came back to Seville from Madrid as quietly as he had departed and waited for an opportunity to reveal the craftsmanship he had learned under Velazquez. Nor had he long to wait for his chance. The friars of the local Franciscan convent had collected a small sum of money by one of their begging brotherhoods to employ in painting a series of pictures for their small cloister. But it was no slight thing they wanted - nothing less than eleven large pictures! Their paltry sum was not sufficient to enlist any painter of fame, but it was enough for the needy, unknown, aspiring Murillo. That ill-paid commission was to make the Franciscan convent of Seville famous throughout the world, and forever to establish the reputation of Murillo.

As it is said: 'Tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.'

When the work was completed it burst on the Sevillians as a miracle of wonder. They could not understand the amazing transformation that was now revealed in Murillo's style. It was said that in these paintings, there was 'much of the strength of Ribera, with added softness and delicacy of tone.' Another compared them to 'all the life-like truth and accuracy of detail which distinguished the early studies of Velazquez,' and that a face in a third picture 'might have been painted by Van Dyck himself.' High praise indeed!

Murillo accepted the public verdict, which ordained him the pictorial exponent of Roman Catholicism, and his success inspired him to great efforts in the production of yet more pictures. In a moment he became the most popular painter in Seville. His reputation was established and commissions began to pour in. His fortune was made!"

To be continued

(Excerpts are from "Murillo, a Biography and Appreciation" by Albert Frederick Calvert.)