The Story of Seville

ez and

he nearer he approaches to the true an

lo. Contemporary, or nearly so, they began their lives in the same environment, yet from their earliest youth they tended to develop upon divergent lines.

tional limitations of the Sevillian school, while the work

developed by Zurbaran, was, by the genius

s style is wholly personal, his pictures bear pre-eminently the mark of individual expression. From his earliest youth this was his method of work. 'He kept,' Pacheco tells us, in the account he gives of his pupil and son-in-law, in his Arte de la Pintura, 'a peasant lad, as an apprentice, who served him as a study in different actions and postures-sometimes crying, sometimes laughing-till he had grappled with every difficulty of expres

Church. It is in this dis-similarity of their aims, that we shall find the explanation of the fact, which cannot fail to impress the visitor to Seville, that, while the city abounds in the works of Murillo, no single picture from the hand

in the due performance of religious observance rather than as works of art. For the artist whose supreme desire was to follow truth Seville was no home. Realism was opposed to the very es

s young son, Philip IV., who at once began to collect abo

King's service; Velazquez painted his portrait. It was carried to the palace before it was dry, and in an hour the whole court had seen it. 'It excited the admiration of the capital,' writes Pacheco, exulting in the success of his favourite, 'and the envy of those of the profession, of which I can bear w

n of the Duke of Wellington, at Apsley House; The Omelet belonging to the late Sir Francis Cook; St. John in Patmos and The Woman and t

class of picture known as bodegones, often painted by the Spanish artists. The former is

s the work to be a genuine Velazquez, and it is just possible that it may be so, and in any case it is a study of much interest. The Corsican water-seller, clad in his brown frock, a well-known figure in the streets of Seville, hands a glass of water

ry spirit of the life around him. His pictures represent the religious emotion of his period; they may

the hands of his countrymen. His art appealed pointedly to the hearts of the people; the expression of his genius was comp

y at the northern end of the Old Alameda, in front of the Church of All Saints. The artistic training he had received was slight. Juan de Castillo, who, as a relative of the family, had taught the boy free of charg

ies of the metropolis of art. Murillo aspired to visit Italy, and with this hope he toiled, until he had saved a sufficient sum to take him to Madrid. He at once sought the counsel and protection of his old friend Velazquez. The court artist received him with the utmost kindness. He gave him lodging in his own apartments, and obtained permission for him to wor

nown artist became the most popular painter in opulent Seville. The only person who failed to acknowledge his genius was Francisco Pacheco. Jealous for the fame of Velazquez, and unable to forgive th

, The Heavenly Violinist, and The Charity of St. Diego, are in Spain.

adows, 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 w

e in harmony with the mystic trend of his emotions. His outlines became softer, and his forms rounder, while his colour began to assume tones of meltin

n 1655, for the sum of 2500 reals. To this period belong the fine portraits of St. Leander and St. Isidore, in the Sacristía Mayor, of the Cathedral; the Nativity, which formerl

haps the only criticism which can be offered is that the figures are rather short. These portraits must be classified with Murillo's fine genre studies-those charm

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,

anner, known as "el Vaporoso," in which the outlines are ent

ied away by the French and placed in the Louvre; but were rescued, and are now in the Académia de Belles Artes, at Madrid. The Virgin, appearing to the wife of a

erous 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

DIAN ANG

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 Sac

h the other she tenderly leads a lovely child. It is painted with great lightness of touch; the di

ne 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

hts. He was buried in the Church of Santa Cruz, beneath his favourite picture, The Descent from the Cross, by Pedro Campa?a. The spot was marked

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 d

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