1.
undisputed protagonists of the canvases of one of the great masters of Spanish Golden Age painting,
divine children and children with no divinity at all,
street children, poor, mischievous, badly dressed and dirty, healthy, innocent ... and painted with an extraordinary humanity

2.
Children of Murillo

3.
The holy children of Murillo.
Although these holy children display an idealised beauty that is absent from the children depicted in Murillo´s genre paintings,
their gestures and expressions are very lifelike.

4.
The painting reflects the moment in which the Child Jesus gives his cousin Saint John
the Baptist water to drink with a shell ...
The Christ Child points towards the soft light emanating from the golden mist formed
by the clouds into which the angels appear to merge.
In the background dark, threatening storm clouds seem to predict the destiny of both
Children.
On Saint John´s cross, a ribbon in the manner of a scroll flutters with the inscription
"ECCE AGNUS DEI", proclaiming the Christ Child as "lamb of God".
By placing the lamb in the foreground staring at the two boys, Murillo emphasizes
its duality as symbol of Christ and favorite companion of any child, thereby placing
the religious event in a domestic context.
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
Los niños de la concha
The Holy Children with a Shell or The Infant Christ and Saint John the Baptist with a Shell
Les Enfants de la coquille ou L'Enfant Jésus et saint Jean-Baptiste à la coquille
1670-1675
Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

5.
The name with which the virgin is designated comes from a legend.
There are two versions of it.
According to the first of them, the Capuchin friars noticed that a napkin had
disappeared from their household goods, but a few days later it was returned
to them by Murillo himself with the drawing of the Virgin.
In the second version it was a friar of the convent who asked Murillo for a
representation of the Virgin and Child so that he could pray privately in his cell.
Murillo accepted, but requested a canvas to make the painting. The friar, however,
lacked financial resources and gave him a napkin on which Murillo painted the work.
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
La Virgen de la Servilleta
Madonna and Child of the Napkin
Vierge de la serviette, Vierge à l’Enfant de la serviette
1666
Museo de Bellas Artes, Sevilla

6.
Intimate, lyrical and very different from Murillo's customary representations
of floating putti.
There are no haloes in this picture, nor is there any hint of the schematic
arrangement seen in Baroque religious pictures.
Here the Holy Family is portrayed as a simple human family.
There is an element of sentimentality in the scene: the parents watch fondly
as the Child plays with the dog and the bird.
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
La Sagrada Familia del Pajarito
The Holy Family with a Little Bird
La Sainte Famille à l'oisillon
1650
Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

7.
Murillo's little angels.
The floating putti venerating and surrounding the Immaculates.

8.
Little angels accompany the Holy Spirit who comes to Mary.
Murillo depicts them as putti from classical mythology, but with the wings
characteristic of angels.
They are babies with pink skin, plump and with a sweet and childish character.
They create an unreal atmosphere of the scene, a scene totally within the divine
scenery.
These scenes in the Seville of the time conveyed a mystery, but this type of little
angels sweetened it thanks to Murillo's quality, his loose brushstrokes.
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
La Anunciación
Annunciation
L’Annonciation
1660
Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

9.
Children's angels holding flowers or olive branches
He follows the same pattern to paint the angels
who accompany his Immaculates: small children, with pink skin, and with the sense
of innocence and purity that should be present in a Marian scene, such as that
of the Immaculate Conception.
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
La Inmaculada del Escorial
The Immaculate Conception of El Escorial
L'Immaculée de l'Escorial
1660-1665
Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

10.
Murillo's poor children …
children playing, begging for food, naughty, real
sevillian street urchins, poorly dressed and dirty, innocent
who interrupt their games so that the spectator directs them a look of sympathy

11.
Two young boys are sitting in a sheltered corner gorging themselves
on fruit probably stolen …
and
a basket full of grapes forms by itself a still life.
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
Niños comiendo uvas y melón
Children Eating Grapes and a Melon , Boys Eating Grapes and Melon
Mangeurs de raisin et de melon
1650
Alte Pinakothek, Múnich

12.
While the two children are immersed in the dice game,
the younger child chewing a piece of bread looks directly at the viewer.
They are poor children, with an air of innocence,
but naughty at the same time,
carefree, full of life,
children who with cunning and skill seek their necessary food to survive,
while spending their time having fun.
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
Niños jugando a los dados
Young Boys Playing Dice
Enfants jouant aux dés
1675-1680
Alte Pinakothek, Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Múnich

13.
A ragged, mischievous and cheerful boy, playing with a dog ...
the thematic model of many of Murillo's paintings,
children victims of the shortcomings that occurred in the seventeenth century,
and that affect a Seville drowned by taxes and competition from Cádiz,
after the plague of 1649.
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
Muchacho con un perro
Boy with a Dog
Garçon avec un chien
1655
The Hermitage, St. Petersburg

14.
A little girl with the face of a Madonna,
a contented little boy examining the earnings she holds in her hand
and
a basket full of grapes which is, in itself, a still-life of the highest quality.
The apparent poverty of the two figures, their unchill-like but necessary employment
suggest a sense of hopelessness and misery.
And yet these children seem to exude an air of rapt serenity and contented enjoyment of life.
Herein lies Murillo's Christian message: because these children do not see their poverty
as a burden, and because they do not regard their existence as joyless,
they are beautiful and "dignified".
…
It is thus a painting that could adorn the walls of any ruler's palace.
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
La pequeña vendedora de fruta
The Little Fruit Seller
La petite marchande de fruits
1670-1680
Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Alte
Pinakothek, Múnich

15.
delousing himself ...
a child in ragged clothes, with dirty feet
and
a still life:
clay pitcher, basket with apples, remains of shrimp or other crustaceans
(The act of delousing oneself can be seen as a way of being in control
of one's own mind and body, a hygienic act often done by mothers
in Dutch genre paintings.)
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
Joven mendigo o Niño espulgándose
The Young Beggar
Le Jeune Mendiant
1645-1650
Musée du Louvre, Paris

16.
A peasant boy leans on a chipped stone block or sill
and looks towards something, or someone, that makes him smile ...
Murillo gave these anonymous figures individuality, prominence and dignity,
presenting them as people with feelings and the ability to express them.
In this particular case, the broad, expressive smile on the boy’s face contrasts
with his shabby attire.
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
Niño riendo, Niño campesino apoyado en un alfeizar
A Peasant Boy Leaning on a Sill
Petit paysan au balcon
1670-1675
National Gallery, London

17.
It seems plausible to associate this work with the old Spanish saying:
“Child with lice, healthy and handsome; child without, weak and sickly.”
The theme is particularly widespread in Dutch painting,
which Murillo could have seen in private collections in Seville.
The scene unfolds in a humble dwelling although it is not an impoverished household,
as details like the bell on the dog’s collar and eyeglass on the old woman’s bodice clearly
reveal.
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
Vieja despiojando a un niño
The Toilette, Domestic scene
La Toilette Domestique
1655-1660
Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Alte
Pinakothek, Múnich

18.
The charming contrast between the sulking countenance of one boy
and the beaming smile of the other ...
a young rogue, tempts another boy to join him in the game,
perhaps hoping to play for the bread the second boy is tactlessly devouring,
or at least share it.
((The game of argolla, consisted in hitting a ball through a hoop driven into the ground.)
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
Invitación al juego de la argolla
Invitation to a Game of Argolla
Invitation à une partie d'Argolla
1665-1670
Dulwich Picture Gallery, London

19.
A black boy asks for some pie from a white boy, who refuses,
while another turns to the viewer and grins ...
In the 19th century the painting's title, 'The Poor Black Boy,' implied that the boy
was begging for charity.
However, his earthenware jug, clothes and shoes clearly indicate he is a servant
or errand boy whose position is probably better than that of the white boys,
who may have resorted to stealing the pie.
(The servant boy could even be a portrait of the son of Murillo's household slave girl,
Juana de Santiago, who is thought to have been born in 1658 and whom Murillo
freed in 1676.)
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
Tres muchachos
Three children
Trois garçons
1670
Dulwich Picture Gallery, London

20.
The quest for the meaning of this remarkable work has yielded
contradictory hypotheses,
from those who argue that it is simply a family observing something going
on in the street, to those who associate it with the practice of prostitution.
In any case, the piercing gazes of the two young people and the old woman
with her enormous spectacles, brazenly beckon the viewer to join them.
The fashionable attire of the young man and the rest of the figures - with the exception
of the conspicuous tear in the child’s trousers - bespeak a higher economic,
if not social, station.
(The boy’s exposed buttock has caused this painting some problems, and it has been
painted over on more than one occasion in the past. All overpainting has now been
removed, and this work appears as was intended by the artist.)
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
Cuatro figuras en un escalón
Four Figures on a Step
Quatre figures sur une marche
1655-1660
Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth

21.
o.esqsegues@gmail.com
Niños de Murillo
Children of Murillo
Enfants de Murillo
images and text credit www.
Music Bring Him Home (from Les Misérables) - The Piano Guys
created olga_oes
thanks for watching

22.
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
Self-portrait
1668-1670
National Gallery , London
La inscripción en latín revela que pintó este autorretrato para
‘cumplir los deseos y oraciones’ de sus hijos.
The Latin inscription reveals that he painted this self portrait to
‘fulfil the wishes and prayers’ of his children.
L'inscription latine révèle qu'il a peint cet autoportrait pour
‘accomplir les souhaits et les prières’ de ses enfants.