DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49256#0023
MURILLO.
doubtless, in the thoughts of the painter, combinée! the two colours of purity and heaven. As to
the Cherubim with which lie surrounded lier, those tender zéphyrs of the Christian mythology
charin in a thonsand different ways, always graceful and artless, now playing with the skirts and
folds of the flowing drapery, now nierely showing their winged heads swimming in fioods of light.
It.seems ahnost as though, when lie had to represent the Virgin apprised by the ange! of the
mysteries of lier future maternity, the Spanish painter fell back into naturalism, and even
produced a powerful effect by the contrast between terrestrial individualities and the idéal signs
and personages sent from on high. We sec frequently in Murillo’s Annunciations the accessories
of domestic life, the workbag, the thinible and the scissors upon the linen heaped up in the
humble basket. It was not nndesignedly that the Andalusian painter, avoiding the lofty style
of Raphaël and the Italian catholics, exhibits to us in an humble workwoman the Virgin chosen
as the accepted medium for the incarnation of Deity.
What a scrupulons fidelity to traditions which the artists of the Renaissance in Italy had long
shaken off ! And how rejoiced the orthodox Pacheco must hâve been to find at Seville a painter
so pure from ail heresy.
Murillo took very good care never to show the feet of the Virgin when lie painted lier
ascending towards Ileaven in the midst of a dazzling glory. He was appréhensive of conjuring
np a profane thought at the sight of divine charms ; this little morse! of nudity, which was not
even remarked at Rome, would hâve been offensive in Andalusia. In spite of thèse pions
précautions, however, the Virgins of Murillo are far from possessing those attributes of virgin
beauty which the faith requires. Their luxuriant hair, their dark and humid eyes, inspire other
ideas than those of divine transport ; and, if they arc représentée! as devoting themselves to
household affairs, it is seldom otherwise than as mothers with plump hands, whom the cares of
life hâve not robbed of the roseate hues of the carnation ; but, by way of aniends, Murillo
lias impressed upon the Son of Mary a character truly superhuman. We fancy we see
around the head of this infant a halo of glory, which needs no mat criai représentation ; His
beaufiful head is lit up with intelligence, His glanée open and penetrating, at once vivid and
gentle, emits rays of genius ; and He looks so great, even in the tranquillity of sleep, that we
feel, as it were, conscious of the présence of a God. Everything around, even to the vulgar
visage of the carpenter, and the worldly figure of Mary, enhances the distinction of the
infant, and indicatcs the divinity that moves within Him. The details of humble life, in
the midst of which the infant Christ was brought up, add still further to the effect; and
they serve as a contrast to the inhérent nobility of soûl, which perhaps would not exliibit so
much character in another medium, for it appears to us singularly lieightened even by the
trivial accessories which surround it. “ With Raphaël,” it lias been well said by a French
critic,* “the Virgin is superlatively virgin; with Murillo the infant Divinity is supremely
divine.”
When a stranger arrives at Seville, lie is immediately conducted to the cathédral, that he may
bo shown the mimerons paintings of Murillo, which the chapter is so justly proud of possessing.
At the back of the high altar he is called upon to admire a “ Nativity of Dur Lady,” admirable
for the sweetness of the tints, ifs quiet shadows, and its charming tone of colour, hermoso
..colorulo. The traveller after this is conducted into the grand sacristy, where glitter the fanions
pictures of St. Leander and St. Isidore, in pontifical habits. Ht' is thon stopped at ono of the
latéral chapels before a “ Repose in Egypt,” painted with the freest and most masterly
* Etudes sur la Peinture Espagnole, by M. Thoré, published in “La Revue de Paris,’’ of 1835.
7
doubtless, in the thoughts of the painter, combinée! the two colours of purity and heaven. As to
the Cherubim with which lie surrounded lier, those tender zéphyrs of the Christian mythology
charin in a thonsand different ways, always graceful and artless, now playing with the skirts and
folds of the flowing drapery, now nierely showing their winged heads swimming in fioods of light.
It.seems ahnost as though, when lie had to represent the Virgin apprised by the ange! of the
mysteries of lier future maternity, the Spanish painter fell back into naturalism, and even
produced a powerful effect by the contrast between terrestrial individualities and the idéal signs
and personages sent from on high. We sec frequently in Murillo’s Annunciations the accessories
of domestic life, the workbag, the thinible and the scissors upon the linen heaped up in the
humble basket. It was not nndesignedly that the Andalusian painter, avoiding the lofty style
of Raphaël and the Italian catholics, exhibits to us in an humble workwoman the Virgin chosen
as the accepted medium for the incarnation of Deity.
What a scrupulons fidelity to traditions which the artists of the Renaissance in Italy had long
shaken off ! And how rejoiced the orthodox Pacheco must hâve been to find at Seville a painter
so pure from ail heresy.
Murillo took very good care never to show the feet of the Virgin when lie painted lier
ascending towards Ileaven in the midst of a dazzling glory. He was appréhensive of conjuring
np a profane thought at the sight of divine charms ; this little morse! of nudity, which was not
even remarked at Rome, would hâve been offensive in Andalusia. In spite of thèse pions
précautions, however, the Virgins of Murillo are far from possessing those attributes of virgin
beauty which the faith requires. Their luxuriant hair, their dark and humid eyes, inspire other
ideas than those of divine transport ; and, if they arc représentée! as devoting themselves to
household affairs, it is seldom otherwise than as mothers with plump hands, whom the cares of
life hâve not robbed of the roseate hues of the carnation ; but, by way of aniends, Murillo
lias impressed upon the Son of Mary a character truly superhuman. We fancy we see
around the head of this infant a halo of glory, which needs no mat criai représentation ; His
beaufiful head is lit up with intelligence, His glanée open and penetrating, at once vivid and
gentle, emits rays of genius ; and He looks so great, even in the tranquillity of sleep, that we
feel, as it were, conscious of the présence of a God. Everything around, even to the vulgar
visage of the carpenter, and the worldly figure of Mary, enhances the distinction of the
infant, and indicatcs the divinity that moves within Him. The details of humble life, in
the midst of which the infant Christ was brought up, add still further to the effect; and
they serve as a contrast to the inhérent nobility of soûl, which perhaps would not exliibit so
much character in another medium, for it appears to us singularly lieightened even by the
trivial accessories which surround it. “ With Raphaël,” it lias been well said by a French
critic,* “the Virgin is superlatively virgin; with Murillo the infant Divinity is supremely
divine.”
When a stranger arrives at Seville, lie is immediately conducted to the cathédral, that he may
bo shown the mimerons paintings of Murillo, which the chapter is so justly proud of possessing.
At the back of the high altar he is called upon to admire a “ Nativity of Dur Lady,” admirable
for the sweetness of the tints, ifs quiet shadows, and its charming tone of colour, hermoso
..colorulo. The traveller after this is conducted into the grand sacristy, where glitter the fanions
pictures of St. Leander and St. Isidore, in pontifical habits. Ht' is thon stopped at ono of the
latéral chapels before a “ Repose in Egypt,” painted with the freest and most masterly
* Etudes sur la Peinture Espagnole, by M. Thoré, published in “La Revue de Paris,’’ of 1835.
7