DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49256#0015
MURILLO. 3
did not at tliat time contain the masterpieces of Murillo. Tlie first master of the great
colourist was Juan del Castillo, his uncle, who, being a disciple of tlio Florentine school, was,
according to Bermudez, hard and dry in his colouring ; but, on the other liand, a chaste and
severe draughtsman, and calculated to fonn good pupils. Murillo loarned without difîiculty ail
tliat was taught him, until his master having gone to establish himself at Cadiz ho felt himself
very much ont of his élément at Seville, a simple scholar, uncertain of his way, and a prey to
the indécision of early youth. In the mean finie lie employed himself in painting, to sell at the
fair of Seville,* a stock of pictures, una partida de pinturas, the mercantile naine which was given
to a considérable brandi of commerce between Spain and her American colonies, and as a
colourer of flags and banners for the gorgeons processions of the church. Such was the humble
beginning of Murillo ; and if this employment inùred the young painter to the difficulties of
execution, and reduced the crudeness of his colouring, it raised him but little in the social
scale above the workman.
Happily, however, a fellow-student of Murillo’s, whom ho had known in the studio of Juan
del Castille, arrived at this juncture at Seville. This young artist was Pedro de Moya, just
retumed front London, where he had studied under Vandyck. Passionatcly devoted to the
style of the Flemish painter, Moya had made himself master of bis leamed and agreeable
methocl ; and as the manner of Vandyck was as y et unknown at Seville, its novelty created
universal astonishment. To Murillo, above ail, the sight of Moya’s works was quite a révélation.
He immediately felt how dangerous, how hard, and how contrary to nature was the practice of
giving exaggerated importance to outline ; and understood how the atmosphère, embracing ail
forms, blonds some, assists the modelling of others, and subdues ail. Thus, a new horizon
opened to his view; he felt a wish to travel, to go to Italy, to Venice, to the Low Countries,
wherever his genius might hâve a chance of developing itself, and if Moya had not acquaintcd
him with the recent death of Vandyck, ho would hâve embarked for England. What to do
without fortune, however, was now the question, for he could not hecdlessly undertake such
long and expensive joumeys. The genius of Murillo at length furnished him with resources ;
he purchased a large quantity of canvass, divided it into squares of varions sizes, which he
primed and prepared with his own hands, and set to work to paint rapidly everything that his
fancy dictated—Madonnas, devotional subjects, flowers, landscapes; monks in one place, objects
of still lite in another ; he then sold his cargo to a shipowner, and thus furnished with some
money, without acquainting his family, or taking leave of any one,t he departed for Madrid,
where he arrived safely when scarccly twenty-five years old.
Velasquez was then in high favour at the court. A personal friend of the king, of Spain, and
an oflicer of his palace, he, nevertheless, received his young countryman most graciously ; and,
through the influence of one of the familiers of Philip IV., Murillo saw the doors of the palace
of Madrid, of the monastery of the Escurial, of ail the royal résidences, of ail the galleries, and
ail the muséums, opened to him. In prosence of the Bubons’ and Titian’s with which the royal
résidences were resplendent, the young painter forgot his travelling project. What occasion, in
* “ A weekly fair held in the parish of Ail Saints, and known as ‘ la Feria.’ The priées in this mart, like the
purchasers, being of the lowest class, the artistic wares exposed were necessarily, for the most part, of a very humble
order ; and, indeed, ‘ a picture of the Fair’ (pintura de la Feria') was a proverbial expression for a bad picture.
Still there was hardly a Sevillian painter of famé during the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries, who had acquired the
use of his pencil at home, but had brought to this market his first clumsy saints and immature Madonnas.”—Annals
of the Artists of Spain, by William Stirling, M.A. London : John Ollivier, 1848, p. 315.
t “ Compro una portion de lienzo ; la dividio en muchos quadros; los imprima por su mano, y pinto en ellos asuntos
de dévotion.”—Cean Bermudez, ubi supra, vol. ii. page 49.
3
did not at tliat time contain the masterpieces of Murillo. Tlie first master of the great
colourist was Juan del Castillo, his uncle, who, being a disciple of tlio Florentine school, was,
according to Bermudez, hard and dry in his colouring ; but, on the other liand, a chaste and
severe draughtsman, and calculated to fonn good pupils. Murillo loarned without difîiculty ail
tliat was taught him, until his master having gone to establish himself at Cadiz ho felt himself
very much ont of his élément at Seville, a simple scholar, uncertain of his way, and a prey to
the indécision of early youth. In the mean finie lie employed himself in painting, to sell at the
fair of Seville,* a stock of pictures, una partida de pinturas, the mercantile naine which was given
to a considérable brandi of commerce between Spain and her American colonies, and as a
colourer of flags and banners for the gorgeons processions of the church. Such was the humble
beginning of Murillo ; and if this employment inùred the young painter to the difficulties of
execution, and reduced the crudeness of his colouring, it raised him but little in the social
scale above the workman.
Happily, however, a fellow-student of Murillo’s, whom ho had known in the studio of Juan
del Castille, arrived at this juncture at Seville. This young artist was Pedro de Moya, just
retumed front London, where he had studied under Vandyck. Passionatcly devoted to the
style of the Flemish painter, Moya had made himself master of bis leamed and agreeable
methocl ; and as the manner of Vandyck was as y et unknown at Seville, its novelty created
universal astonishment. To Murillo, above ail, the sight of Moya’s works was quite a révélation.
He immediately felt how dangerous, how hard, and how contrary to nature was the practice of
giving exaggerated importance to outline ; and understood how the atmosphère, embracing ail
forms, blonds some, assists the modelling of others, and subdues ail. Thus, a new horizon
opened to his view; he felt a wish to travel, to go to Italy, to Venice, to the Low Countries,
wherever his genius might hâve a chance of developing itself, and if Moya had not acquaintcd
him with the recent death of Vandyck, ho would hâve embarked for England. What to do
without fortune, however, was now the question, for he could not hecdlessly undertake such
long and expensive joumeys. The genius of Murillo at length furnished him with resources ;
he purchased a large quantity of canvass, divided it into squares of varions sizes, which he
primed and prepared with his own hands, and set to work to paint rapidly everything that his
fancy dictated—Madonnas, devotional subjects, flowers, landscapes; monks in one place, objects
of still lite in another ; he then sold his cargo to a shipowner, and thus furnished with some
money, without acquainting his family, or taking leave of any one,t he departed for Madrid,
where he arrived safely when scarccly twenty-five years old.
Velasquez was then in high favour at the court. A personal friend of the king, of Spain, and
an oflicer of his palace, he, nevertheless, received his young countryman most graciously ; and,
through the influence of one of the familiers of Philip IV., Murillo saw the doors of the palace
of Madrid, of the monastery of the Escurial, of ail the royal résidences, of ail the galleries, and
ail the muséums, opened to him. In prosence of the Bubons’ and Titian’s with which the royal
résidences were resplendent, the young painter forgot his travelling project. What occasion, in
* “ A weekly fair held in the parish of Ail Saints, and known as ‘ la Feria.’ The priées in this mart, like the
purchasers, being of the lowest class, the artistic wares exposed were necessarily, for the most part, of a very humble
order ; and, indeed, ‘ a picture of the Fair’ (pintura de la Feria') was a proverbial expression for a bad picture.
Still there was hardly a Sevillian painter of famé during the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries, who had acquired the
use of his pencil at home, but had brought to this market his first clumsy saints and immature Madonnas.”—Annals
of the Artists of Spain, by William Stirling, M.A. London : John Ollivier, 1848, p. 315.
t “ Compro una portion de lienzo ; la dividio en muchos quadros; los imprima por su mano, y pinto en ellos asuntos
de dévotion.”—Cean Bermudez, ubi supra, vol. ii. page 49.
3