Rendering №2

Theology for the masses

     This article was published by Griselda Murray Brown on the site http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/a8ea8180-720f-11e2-89fb-00144feab49a.html#axzz2LYK3DHPl on the 15 of February. 
    Today the 17 century Spanish painter is associated with Catholic kitsch. But this impression too is quickly dispelled when confronted with “The Foundation of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. Murillo echoes the lunette shape in a series of arcs – the shapely fall of the tablecloth moving through the patrician’s arm, his sleeping head propped on his elbow. 

    The picture is a highlight of the travelling exhibition Murillo and Justino de Neve: The Art of Friendship, which came from the Prado in Madrid to Seville’s Hospital de los Venerables Sacerdotes and has just opened at London’s Dulwich Picture Gallery. The dispersal of Murillo’s works began during his lifetime.  Murillo’s work was widely coveted. In 1658, he visited Madrid (his only recorded absence from Seville) and his exposure to the works of Titian, Veronese, Rubens and Velázquez brought about a loosening of his technique. De Neve secured commissions for him to paint four lunettes for the parish church of Santa Maria la Blanca, and several works for Seville cathedral and the Hospital de los Venerables, as well as for his private collection. Also part of the altarpiece was Murillo’s Caravaggesque “The Infant Saint John the Baptist with a Lamb”.  Dulwich’s stagy yet scholarly show is an important opportunity to reassess this contradictory genius.

     As for the author’s thoughts about this article and this theme:
“Or was it well for the painter to give this time to the painting of those repulsive and wicked children? ... We all know that a beggar’s foot cannot be clean; there is no need to thrust its degradation into the light”

     As for my opinion, I saw the works of this painter for the first time and I can say that they are very good, they have their own meaning. The colours of the pictures are very interesting and ambiguous.