the devout, sketching the austerity of monastic life or the
ebullience of a saint. Zurbarán was also a master of Spain’s
new speciality, still life, placing a vase here, a bowl there,
urging the viewer to try and pick them up. The joyous
Inmaculada Concepción(1634) and the spartan, haunting
and expertly lit Meditación de San Francisco(1635-39)
show Zurbarán’s varied approach to an all-consuming
spirituality.In later life Zurbarán altered his style to compete with
Seville’s favourite new artist, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo.
He failed. Murillo overshadowed the older artist and
Zurbarán died in poverty in Madrid. Today, you might
wonder why the accomplished austerity of Zurbarán
(sometimes referred to as the Spanish Caravaggio no less)
was upstaged by the rather cloying religious portraiture of
Murillo. Like Zurbarán and Velázquez, Murillo began painting
in a naturalistic style, although his subjects, notably various
versions of the Immaculate Conception, often had an
unworldly cherubic glow. He also painted arresting secular
portraits of women, beggars and flower girls. The work
of Juan de Valdés Leal, another Sevillan, jarred against
Murillo’s. By turns brilliant and mediocre, his macabre, dark
realism of painted skeletons and cadavers served as grim
visual tutorials of what vanity could do to you.Spanish Baroque on the world stage
Of the great Baroque Spanish painters, only Murillo
enjoyed any fame outside Spain before the mid 19th
century. It took an exhibition in the Louvre to throw the
spotlight on artists like Velázquez and Ribera. Soon after,
their work began to influence French Realists and
Impressionists, notably Edouard Manet. By the early 20th
century Velázquez in particular had become an iconic
Spanish painter. In the 1950s Picasso created a series of
58 works based on Las Meninasor some part of it.120- Identity: the
building blocks of
2. Literature
and philosophy
3. Art and
architecture
4. Performing
arts
5. Cinema
and fashion
6. Media and
communications
7. Food and drink 8. Living culture:
the details of
Occupational hazards
In 1682 Bartolomé
Esteban Murillo fell
from his scaffold while
painting the Espousal
of St Catherinefor the
Capuchin church in
Cadiz. His injuries
resulted, some weeks
later, in his death.The man from
the Inquisition
The Sevillan painter
Francisco Pacheco was
Velázquez’ father-in-law.
He also worked as a
kind of scout for the
Inquisition in his home
city, monitoring painterly
output to check piety
levels were sufficiently
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