Murillo

Murillo, Bartolomb Esteran, the son of humble parents, was born at Seville in 1617. Whilst a child he showed such artistic tendencies that his distant relative, Juan del Castillo, took him into his studio. In 1642 he set out wdth the idea of visiting Italy and Flanders. At Madrid he fell in with Velasquez, the court painter, who set him to work at copying Ribera, Vandyck, and himself. Returning to Seville after two years, he undertook to adorn the walls of the small cloister of the Franciscan convent, and the eleven pictures which he then painted made his name. The Flight into Egypt, the San Leandro and San Isidoro, the Nativity of the Virgin, and the Dream of the Roman Senator illustrate this period. In 1658 he established the Academy of Seville, and in 1661 he began the pictures for the Hospital de la Caridad. Among his later achievements, which rather lack vigour, are the well-known Assumption of the Virgin, St. Peter Weeping, and a portrait of Canon Justino. He died in 1682.