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Esteban Bartolome Murillo was a Spanish painter during the Counter Reformation. Since he was a child he showed interest in the arts. Eventually, his talents landed him a steady job in Seville. Due to the Counter Reformation there was a huge demand for religious paintings. His style lent itself rather well to the religious fervor of Catholic. His art was so popular that up to 19th century , his work was reproduced. Ok... onto his work.

 Immaculate Conception

A large bulk of Murillo's paintings center on the character of the Virgin Mary.  The immaculate conception is a catholic dogma that states that the Virgin Mary was born without the original sin (and as a result does not sin).  This sinless nature of Mary made her a perfect vessel for the son of God. Murrillo knew what his audience wanted. Just look at how pure and innocent the Virgin Mary looks. The way she has her hands crossed with her gaze toward the heaven is truly divine. The lil cherubs make a lovely decoration. The crescent moon beneath her feet is a sign of fertility and of the holy church (which is the bride of god). Other interesting symbols is the lily flower of the virgin and the sacred palm leafs of Christ. The whole symbolism is rather nice. Truly, this fits in with the whole religious fervor of Catholic Spain from the 1600s.

Childhood of Virgin

 The above painting shows a scene from the early life of the Virgin Mary. Around 200 AD, the Virgin Mary became rather popular. Followers of Christianity started collecting stories surrounding the Virgin Mary. Despite the fact that these text never became part of the New Testament, they still remained rather popular. Anyhow, in this painting the Virgin Mary is receiving the Gospel from her mother. Like Sarah, Mary's mother was far too old to give birth. However, through the power of God Mary's mother was able to conceive her. Among the cute details in this painting is how the cherubs crown the Virgin Mary with a crown of flowers.

Madonna with a Napkin 

 Like the painting says, this is a Madonna with a Napkin. Madonna is another name for the Virgin Mary. She has this name whenever she is alone with baby Jesus in her arms. What is pretty about Murillo's painting is how the characters engage the viewer by looking directly at them.

Assumption of the Virgin

The next painting of Murillo chronicles the Virgin Mary's assumption to heaven. In this painting we see the Virgin Mary hoisted up two heaven by dozens of cherubs. As she flies up, she has her arms stretched with her gaze up. I like the lil glowing halo around her head. After dying at the age of 53, the Virgin Mary rose to heaven in both body and soul to be crowned Queen of Heaven. According to Dogma, this event took place in August 15.

Inmaculada Concepcion (La Colosal)

La Colosal or the Colossal is quite the interesting title. The way those cherubs are carrying her cloud kinda makes the Virgin Mary look huge. It is an interesting concept. Above her head, the halo stands as the sun and beneath her feet we can see the full moon.

Madonna and Child with Saint Bernard

Now this is quite the change of pace. Of all the visions of the virgin Mary this is one that I find most disturbing ... Saint Bernard breast fed by the Virgin (then again I am not too big on breast feeding although I got to admit that it is a pretty image). The entire gaze of all the heavenly beings are focused on this saint.  I think there is like 10 different Saint Bernards (and one of them is a doggie) .

Birth of Mary

The way this painting is arranged bears a lot of resemblance to the Nativity. The Virgin Mary even has her own lil band of angels. in this painting the mother of the virgin is opaque in the background. Here the central focus is the adoration of the virgin by all the household servants. It is pretty neat how they are dressed like Spaniards in order to engage the contemporary viewers.  

Apparition of the Virgin

 Oh, the description of the Virgin Mary comes from Apocalypse. In that book they describe a maiden standing on top of a moon with a crown of stars bearing the savior. The book goes into greater detail about what she is wearing and how her face looks like. There is another problematic issue but I will not get into it. Needless to say, Murillo has the correct depiction of the Virgin Mary. It is pretty neat how these upper class spaniards are conversing about the apparition. 

Virgin and Child with St. Rosalina of Palermo

 St. Rosalina of Palermo is another interesting saint. The Story goes that she was a rich noble woman descendant of Charlemagne. She left home in order to live in a cave to dedicate herself to the contemplation of God. During the plague she appeared to a sick woman. Later she met a hunter and ordered him to take her bones from the cave and parade them around the city. After, that procession the plague ceased in Palermo. In this Murillo painting, we see Rosalina offering a flower to the virgin. Behind her we see the hunter explaining to the villagers what he saw in the forest.

Virgin and Child

 Neat, another Virgin and Child arrangement. Both do look cute together. In this painting the entire focus is on baby Jesus. He is the only one that is looking at the viewer. The mother focuses all her attentions on her child. 

The Heavenly and Earthly Trinities

The Earthly Trinity is Mary, Joseph and Christ. The heavenly is the father, the son and the holy ghost. During Roman times, children where associated with their fathers. However, the fact that Christ was called the son of Mary allude to his mysterious illegitimate birth. Heck, only Mathew and Mark make any mention of Joseph. There is no mention , or allusion to him, during the adult narratives of Jesus. Then again Jesus needed a person to teach him how to be a carpenter. In the old days, children followed after their parents. Carpenters had carpenter children, soldiers little soldiers ect. Since women back then where not into carpentry it makes sense that Jesus must have had a human parental figure to teach him carpentry. I guess he sorta came into the picture to fill in some gaps in the biography of Jesus. In any case, Murillo's Trinity looks very lovely. Only Joseph, the outsider is looking at the viewers directly. The rest of the characters are focused on little Jesus.

 

 

The Nativity 

 Neat, Jesus Christ has been born. what is different about Murillo's Nativity is the fact that it is outdoors in the forest. In addition, only the donkeys is within the picture. The poor baby Christ is sleeping on top of a rock and is using a rise bag as a pillow. I like a lot whole the two cherubs are hugging while adoring the sleeping baby Jesus.

The Annunciation

I always wondered why the angels usual greeting was " Do not be Afraid". I guess they really are not as pretty as they paint them. From Ezekiel I wager that the angels are some freaky looking creatures. After all, only mankind was modeled after God. Then again, God is always speaking in plural... What is up with that? I like the details of the holy bible along with the empty cradle toward the bottom left. It is cute how the angel points to the holy spirit of God.

La Virgen del Rosario (The Virgin of the Rosary)

The above Virgin and Child is Murillo's wife and first born. He did this painting to commemorate the birth of his first born. It is a sign of Murillo's love and devotion to his family. Both do look quite pretty. They are wearing traditional high class Baroque dresses with the colors of the Virgin.

The infant Jesus distributing bread to pilgrims

 This is another cute apparition of the Virgin. The pilgrims are all looking with devotion at the virgin Mary. I like how the angel is holding the bread basket for Jesus as he distributes the daily bread. You know that concept of the daily bread is taken from Exodus. Originally, mana only lasted for a day and thus it became the Israelite "daily bread".

Vierge Enfant

 Another pretty picture. I wonder what the baby Jesus is playing with...Both do look rather pretty. I think that is another painting of Murillo's wife and one of their children. Both do look cute together. I like best the cute way that Murillo paints Babies. Truly, he has a way of enhancing the cuteness of babies.

Adoration of the Wise Men

In the Bible, it said that the Wise Men belonged to three different civilization. In order to depict this difference, Murillo made the Wise Men European, Muslim and Jew. In the old days, the Europeans did not have good historians. All the only other kinds of people they knew where the Muslims and the Jews. Its for this reason that the Wise Men have always been depicted as above. Like other Baroque artist, Murillo has all the characters dressed like his Spanish Baroque contemporaries.

Madonna

 You know I remember seeing this Virgin in a Hallmark Christmas Card. That Murillo is really popular even today. Its too bad not a lot of people notice or care that the cute cards they idolize where made like 400 years ago.

 

Tempelgang Maria

In the next painting the Virgin Mary is being presented to the high priest at the temple of Jerusalem. This similar ritual was performed on Jesus at a similar age. It was pretty common back then the presentation of children to the high priest in order to bless them. The only person looking at the viewer is a hobo in front of the temple. It is quite the humbling experience, we the meek looking at this procession. 

Marriage of the Virgin

One is tempted to assume that the Virgin Mary is getting married to Joseph. However, she is wearing the Immaculate Conception clothing. Above we see the holy spirit coming toward her. God is coming to claim his bride/ mother.

The Virgin of Seville, 1665-70 

 The virgin of Seville looks pretty cute. I see a lot of trinities here. Lets see there is the lamb of God, the Good Sheppard and his mother. There the father, the son and the holy ghost. There is Mary, Jesus and the holy Ghost. Oh.. so many combinations. So much symbolism. 

virgin and child with a rosary

This another virgin and child with a Rosary. Lets see, "rosary" means a garland of flowers. It is a part of the virgin Mary worship. Around the time of Murillo, the worship of the Virgin became central in Catholicism in response to her devaluation in the hands of the protestants. Her divine status was always a touchy issue between Catholics and Protestants.

Our Lady of grief 

Here she is crying for her son's death. For some reason, the Catholics never felt like aging her in the paintings.

Flight into Egypt

Lets see, the earthly trinity ran away to Egypt because Herod the Great wanted to kill the competition ( he also slaughter a lot of small would be messiahs). He was always quite the paranoid man. It got to a point that he even murderer his own wife and son because he feared treason from them. Truly there was nothing great about Herod the Great. Ironically, he made a lot of additions to the temple of Jerusalem. He was always quite the eccentric passive aggressive man.

 

 

 

Infant Christ Asleep on the Cross

Neat, baby Jesus sleeping next to a human skull and a cross. This alludes to the fact that he is gonna die for the sins of mankind. Above him two cherubs are praying as the sun rises over the horizon. This is quite an unusual depiction of Jesus Christ. 

Nativity with Shepards 

In the front we see a lovely nativity. The only source of light is emanated from the body of baby Jesus. Behind them we see the shepherds receiving the good news from the holy ghost as a pair of cherubs guides them to their savior. 

Young Christ as the Good Shepherd

 I like the good Shepherd parable a lot. Pretty neat, the way he describes his relationship with the sinners. Christ always seeks his lost sheep out and rejoices after having found them.

Baptism

Before Jesus set on his mission, his cousin John the Baptist was paving the way for him. John was surprised that Jesus wanted to be Baptized by him. Why he wanted to be baptized is still a mystery. He said he needed to be Baptized in order to begin his mission. Then again he did believe in preaching by example. I guess he let himself be baptized to show others that they had to do this in order to prepare for the kingdom of God. Thus, once he was baptized God finally acknowledge him as his one and only son. Thus, to be baptized meant to become children of God. In any case, this issue about the baptism of Jesus raises a lot of ??? It is best not to read too much into it. According to the Gospel of John, Jesus baptized himself so that the holy spirit declares him the messiah. Since everyone saw and heard the holy Spirit, Jesus status became know to all. So I guess having the a voice from the sky call you divine is a nice way to start a ministry.

Ok... moving along, Murillo's painting shows the dove descending from the sky. Toward the right wing of the dove one can read the words spoken by the holy ghost. I don't know why whenever I read the Bible in English I cannot understand. That King James is gonna be the death of me. Even the standard English one is built around that cursed King James. I think they should start from scratch with the English Bible. 

Christ Healing the Paralytic at the Pool

In the next painting Jesus is healing a Paralytic near a Pool. In Rome, they had a lot of public bathrooms and washing houses. It is refreshing to see Jesus in a Greco Roman setting. Among the details that I like is the dog that is keeping his head hunched in front of the Lord. The benevolent looks of the apostles and the savior work rather well. Only the old apostle seems surprise (I bet he is Peter). 

The Prodigal son driven out

The prodigal son is the most popular parable of Jesus. Here he describes with a real world example God's relationship with the sinners. The story goes that a son of rich king asked him for his inheritance. He went to the city and lived a life of pleasure. He then went into dept and had to resort to meager jobs to survive. in this image the deports and the citizens are driving the Prodigal son out because of his debauchery and misbehavior. Lets see, the inheritance represents the talents God gave man. If we misused our powers we end up like the Prodigal son. In this painting, Murillo shows the Prodigal son being chased out like some cur with brooms and swords. His meagerness is enhanced by the dog that is running next to him. 

Prodigal Son

 So the story goes that the prodigal son decides to return home. He is ashamed at having wasted his father's money and has the right mind to amend his ways. When his father saw him coming he greeted him with the greatest civility. He was overjoyed at his return. The son that was missing had come back. Ignoring his son's pleas to be treated as a slave, he summon all his family and servants and treated his son to a feast. The loyal son was annoyed that the Prodigal son was being rewarded for being a knave. His father rebuked him because his Prodigal son had returned to him.

During Jesus time sinners became marginalized in their society. The pios ones used to look down on sinner and they felt no compassion for them. Jesus saw this and wished to give his followers a sense of sympathy and compassion. He wishes to show that God forgives all who truly amend and repent their ways. The kingdom of God is open for all who wish to enter. 

The Last Supper

 Damn!! Its crowded. It is interesting to note that Murillo included in this Last Supper not only the 12 but the rest of the apostles. Heck, one can hardly see Jesus among so many people. Another detail that I find irresistible is the maiden next to Jesus. It is surprising to see a lot of women among the twelve. Only some male slaves are working. This picture seems to be more realistic than previous depictions. From my studies, I can name at least 20 Maries (or Miriam)  and 5 Marthas that where identified as disciples/followers of Jesus. The whole 12 thing only appears in Luke, whose entire thesis aggrandizes the apostle Peter. No other text clearly numbers them as 12 ect. In any case, here is a cute family picture of Jesus and all the folks who truly participate (theoretically speaking) in the Last Supper. This true Last Supper has earned Murillo 5 stars for reading between the lines. Impressive... and kinda scary that the Spanish Inquisition sorta let this piece slip.

Christ after Flagellation

I remember seeing on the history channel that they had discover the physical remains if "Jesus". Some how I was skeptic. My suspicions that the entire program was the biggest piece of $%*^ was confirmed in my Early Christian History Class. Jesus Aramaic name is Iesu, which is translated to Joshua .Jesus is the geek name if Jesus. In any case, Joshua/ Iesu/Jesus was a pretty popular name back them. Joshua had been a powerful general that succeeded Moses. He led the Israelite to Canaan and helped them settle in the new territory. Thus, being the name of a patriarch , it makes sense that there are like 1000 "Jesus" roaming around during the time of Jesus. Heck my favorite grave stone proves my point " Jesus something something son of Jesus ect son Jesus XII" . You see my point. The same problem occurs with the Virgin Mary or the Virgin Miriam  to be more exact.

So I just wanted to bring up this point before continuing with the Murillo paintings. Above we see the flagellation of Jesus, flagellation was part of the shaming rituals that was popular among roman authorities. It was usually done in public to ruin the honor and reputation of the person being wiped. In this painting, Jesus after being wiped is putting his clothes back on. This pathetic sight shows that the whippings where having its effect. He was humiliated in all ways imaginable during his flagellation.

Crown of Thorns

 The crown of all humiliations for Jesus was the crown of Thorns. This crown not only humiliated him as an individual but it also mocked his teaching. With this crown and the palm leaf as his scepter, Jesus was made into a parody of  a King. As his tormentors waltzed him around they pretended to worship him as they spit on him. it ins interesting how the scepter of the palm leaf was used in this painting. When Jesus first arrived at Jerusalem he was ushered in with Palm leafs. Now this same leafs has been turned into a satire of his person. 

Jesus bearing a cross

 All Gospels agree that after Jesus was arrested all his male disciples split town. We only hear of female eye witnesses during the scenes of the Crucifixion. This says a lot of the followers of Jesus. In essence, only the female followers where loyal enough to stay during the bad times. Its easy to worship a person when he is on the high ground. It is another different issue to be there and risk arrest during his execution. Before then, most gospels could make due without female eye witness testimony to the life of Jesus. However, since all of the male followers left then (finally) female disciples came into the foreground of the narratives.  Thus, this explains this pretty picture.

Crucifixion

 In the above image we see Jesus mother, Mary Madelene and Mary the Wife of Clopas. These are the three infamous Maries that appear in the scene of the crucifixion in the Gospel of John. This proves the fact that Mary was a super popular. All what a drag, that is totally a dude. That's James wearing red. He is the supposed "beloved" disciple. He seems like a later addition to some of the canonical text. If you ask me its safer to work with John, than with the rest of the canonical  texts. He was a real weirdo and almost a Gnostic to boot. He is the missing link that makes the whole trinity work.  In the old days, the Trinitarians where fighting the Aryans. The whole issues was the nature of Christ with the Holy Ghost. In order to make the Trinitarians concept work, they needed the gospel of John. Otherwise, he would not even be there in the first place. Catholics usually tell folks to take John with a grain of salt. However, I think that he should be held in high regards cause if you discredit his Jesus narrative then you also have to look down upon the Apocalypse (which is something not advisable considering the threats written around the end of the book).

Resurrection

In this Painting of Murillo, Jesus is rising to heaven while his guards sleep. This is alludes to the incident in Gethsemane where Jesus was starting to chicken out. He was praying and bleeding sweet drops while his apostles slept. So then he gets up and wakes his apostles. In one version, he complains to all the apostles (in the Luke version). However, in the other Gospel books Jesus was chastised Peter. It kinda sucked for him. Here he was praying to be saved from his fate while his apostles slept . I guess they did not take his accusations of Judas seriously. 

Detail of Angels at the kitchen

 This is a detail of the painting Angels at the kitchen. This is two of the many angels. In the main painting not only where there angels but saints and virgins ect. I like the pigeon wings of the angels. These two have both masculine and feminine traits worthy of the true ambiguous nature of angels.I wonder what is the nature of their conversation.

San Seta 

 I really do not know who this saint is. There is about 50 places called San Seta and another 80 persons bearing her name. Well she does look cute and has a palm leaf and an earth basin with a bow. I guess those are her symbols. During Murillo's time there was a revival of saintly cults. So aside from Jesus and Mary,  the saints where really popular back then (they still are).

The Martyrdom of St. Andrew (Greek word for valor)

 Damn, those Romans are brutal. For crying out loud, crucifixions , burnings and Lions are no fun at all. Then again, it was all part of the spectacle. To keep the people happy they had to feed them and entertainment. That is how they maintained peace in such a vast kingdom. Even today, the spectacle of horrible deaths still does not fail to mesmerize us. I guess there is something wrong with humans in general to still dig horrible things like this. His importance lies in the fact that they attribute to him the creation of Bishopric in Constantinople. In any case, Bishops or Patriarchs that claimed to be his successors had the same or more authority than the Bishop of Rome (before Constantinople was destroyed). Anyhow, he was the brother of Peter and they where both picked up by Jesus by the river side. He requested to be crucified in an X shaped cross because he deemed himself unworthy of having a death like Jesus. So all X shaped crosses are identified as the Cross of St. Andrew. What I find interesting is that Peter's original name was fully Aramaic while his brother had a Greek name. Perhaps they where half brothers.

Now that I think about it Jesus only renamed the disciples that had Jewish names. Heck, he is mostly remembered for his Greek name, Jesus. Perhaps he went about 100% as Jesus, in order to keep a low profile. In the old days, the Romans where paranoid due to the constant barbarian invasions and dissent from within. Every 30 days, a new "Messiah" would rise and make the Jews go berserk. So it makes sense that considering how controversial his teachings where, Jesus would make his followers take up Greek names in order to keep a low profile. It worked considering that he avoided the cross for like 3 years. Consider this, he questioned not only the authority of the Pharisees (or the Oral Torah) but also the Sadducee (or the priestly class). Not only that, he took it upon himself the name of a messiah. Then again he never did call himself a messiah. He just spoke like one. Think about it, in his trial Pilates asked him "are you the messiah" and he said "the only person calling me a messiah is you".

So where was I going with all of this? Right, this explains why most of the apostles of Jesus have Greek names. He knew the Greeks and how they worked since his town was right in front of Greek city. The Greeks where seen as harmless parrots so by pretending to be Greek Jesus would not have raised any eyebrows.

The Guardian Angel

 Another interesting concept is that of the Guardian angel. Traditionally, a guardian angel is an angel that God assigns to each  individual person to look after him throughout all his life. This idea is borrowed from the daemons that appear in Plato's republic. Jesus himself spoke of guardian angels in the Gospel of Matthew. He warned that guardian angels of children are always watching and ready to report to go inequities done to children. In Kabalah, Guardian angels or Tselems are responsible for prophecy. In all versions, the Guardian angel gives us a direct link to God. It has become pretty common the prayer to Guardian Angels. In this painting, Murillo embodies these sentiments. Here we see a Guardian Angel guiding a lil boy. As he leads him by the hand he points toward the heavens to transfer the blessings of God to the child. 

John of God

John of God was a famous Portuguese Saint that lived during the 1500s. He created some hospices focused on the taking care of the sick and poor. After his death in 1550, he was canonize. In the above painting, Murillo is showing John of God picking up a beggar off the street. An angel is helping him balance the poor man on his back. So both John of God and his guardian angel are helping take care of the poor. 

Mary Magdalene (pink)

 Mary Magdalena is an interesting character in the Bible. Traditionally, she is shown as a repentant prostitute that Jesus saved from being stoned to death. After his resurrection, Mary Magdalene left to a cave to devote the rest of her life to contemplation of Jesus. In Medieval times, she was the source of a lot of bizarre saintly fetish. She is seen in a lot of Gothic Cathedrals with her breasts exposed and her gaze toward the heavens. This one follows a similar trend. This Mary Magdalene is wearing only a purple robes that is hanging loosely over her chest. She has her vision to the sky while in front of her we see the cross, the bible and a skull. So she is meditating on life after death. 

Mary Magdalene Version 2 ( Red)

The bible itself never identifies Mary Magdalene as being the repentant prostitute. Her name just happens to appear after the episode. So it made sense for early church theologians that Mary Magdalene was the prostitute. I argue that his was done out of malice. In the old days, there was a struggle for authority between the male and female apostles. The office of the widows was in constant competition with the Bishops. We see this struggle in letters of Paul and Pseudo Paul. The true letters of Paul shows his support for women in the preachers. The fake letters demands that women keep quiet. One can recognize the fakers because during the time of Paul the church hierarchy was nonexistent. So any mention of Bishops and Prebisphites (I don't know how to spell this word )  in a Paul letter is a clear sign of it being a fake. Then again it was common for students to sign as their teachers in letters. Still  I argue that he did not mind women preaching. After all, in Paul's letter to the Romans he takes time to praise the bearer of the letter Junia. He clearly calls her an apostle. In later translations, her name is changed to Junius by the church fathers who considered Junia a typo in the text.

Not, only where women preachers a problems. But bishops had to contend with female Bishops. Many female Bishops claimed direct apostolic succession from Mary Magdalena and Martha. In order to discredit them, the Trinitarians omitted from the bible the Gnostic Books of Mary Magdalena. One should not look ill upon them. After all, the Catholics where trying to keep the Romans off their case. Thus, they had to make Catholicism more Greco Roman friendly. once they managed to accommodate then finally Christianity became a the universal Religion of the Roman Empire. Thus, this helps to explain how Mary Magdalena ended up as a street walker and why women cannot minister in the majority of Christian churches. So yeah, back to Murillo. This follows the old versions. 

Mary Magdalene Version ( with book)

 Ok, so who really was Mary Magdalene. According to the Gospel of Mary, Mary was the only apostle that really got Jesus. In this Gospel, the male disciples are all perplexed at the word of Jesus. We see there a huge struggle of authority between Mary and the rest. Some seem to think that she was his lover because they kissed. Ladies and Gentleman, remember that Judas turned Jesus in with a kiss. A lot of Roman historians describe the rituals kisses among Christians. So Jesus and Mary where not lovers. It was part of a ritual that was lost to history. We may never know what this kiss meant or its significance. In any case, she must have been really important to have appeared in all the accounts of Jesus. In conclusion, all her depictions are erroneus but that only came into the surface until recently.

Saint Joseph et lenfant Jesus 

The above paiting shows the adoptive father of Jesus. He took care of Jesus despite his ambiguous birth. Then again God commanded him to take care of his son. The only mention of Joseph appears in the books of Luke  and Mathew. Paul never mentions him. Regardless of who he was (or whether he existed), he was important figure in the Catholic Tradition. He saved Jesus from " The Massacre of Innocents". The story goes that Herod the Great woke up one morning and decided to kill a lot of children with the hopes of slaying the supposed Messiah. There is actual physical evidence of this event. It was recorded in the Annals of Roman history plus they found a mass graveyard of children where this event took place. So there must be some truth in Luke and Matthew. In any case, a man named Joseph saved Jesus from a terrible death. I like this depiction a lot. Joseph is holding up his savoir in a tenderly loving manner. Meanwhile, the lovely Jesus is looking at the viewer.

St. Francis of Assisi at Prayer

St. Francis of Assisi was born on October 3rd ,1181 or 1182. I was also born on Oct. 3rd. He was the son of a wealthy merchant. During his trip back to Assisi he received his calling and decided to part with the world. He founded a lot of orders and during the Crusades he tried to die at the hands of the Muslim. He wanted to die a martyr at the hands of the infidels but the far more educated Muslim (they where going through their Golden Years) where not fond of killing unarmed saintly men.He went back home disappointed at not dying an epic death. He took the the cloisters and started meditating on Christ. One day he woke up with stigmata. Stigmata is the physical manifestation of Christ wounds. He was the first person to receive these wounds. In his final moments he sang, Psalm 141, " in you I take refuge—do not give me over to death". In this painting Murillo depicted St. Francis with his arms crossed in prayer. If you look closely you can see the nail wounds in his palms (its too bad that Jesus wounds where roughly around the wrist) . 

 

St. Rose of Lima

 St. Rose of Lima was the first Catholic Saint of the new world. She was born in Lima, Peru. She was born as Isabel, however her nickname became rose because one of the servants claimed that her faced for transfigured into that of a Rose. As a child, she started fasting and performing penance. Because she was beautiful she had many suitors. In order to fend them off, she cut off her aired and disfigured with pepper. Eventually, she was able to convince her parents to give her a room to meditate. She wanted to go to Rome to become a nun but her parents asked her to stay with them. The only time she left her room was to perform charitable work. She took care of the sick and made clothing for them. Her piety was so famous that it drew the attention of the Dominican order. At, the age of 31 she died, as she had prophesied. 50 years later, she Pope Clement canonized her. This painting is true to the image of St. Rose. For starters her face is very pretty. Her hands are fine and delicate  , worthy of her talents in embroidery. The bay Jesus looks cute reaching out for her rosary and her rose. Behind her we can see a rose bush. 

Saint Anthony of Padua with the Child

 Saint Anthony is notorious for his knowledge of the Bible and for his preaching skills. He was such a talented orator that he was declared a Saint soon after his death. He tried working outside the church (you know taking care the ills ect) however he caught an illness that followed him till his death. The only time he came alive was at the pulpit. In this painting Saint Anthony is hugging Baby Jesus. He is looking at him directly in the eyes as the Child speaks while sitting on top of the Bible. In his other hand he holds Lilies which is the flower of the Virgin. Murillo truly captured the brilliance of Saint Anthony. With these symbols Murillo helped to illustrate what made Saint Anthony so special.

The Infant St. John

 In the above painting we see St. John the Baptist as the good Shepperd. He is looking up toward the heaven receiving the word from the lil angels. In this painting, he appears with the traditional wild clothing. Such an attire was pretty typical of wondering prophets. Elijah wore similar drapes during his wondering. Even in the Bible, one gets the impression that St. John is one of those hipper doomsday like prophets.

San Antonio

 Above we have another painting of Saint Antony. Here he is having a vision of heaven. As he prays the cherubs dance over him. I like how Murillo contrast the simple dwelling of Saint Anthony with the elaborated, clustered heavenly vision. 

The Liberation of The Apostle Peter

In the above painting the Apostle Peter has been freed by his guardian angel. This scene only appears in Acts of the apostles. Since early days Christians have been persecuted by both Jewish and Roman authorities. With no foothold, the wrath of the Romans threatened to lay waste upon Christians. It must have been the wisdom of Paul that saved Christianity ... In any case, this is a cute picture. The only source of light comes from the angel.

Arch Angel Micheal 

The Archangel Micheal is the fighter angel. He is first mentioned in the book of Daniel as the warrior angel that fights Satan. In this painting, he is doing exactly that. He looks super scary with his flame sword raised up as he prepares to give Satan the coup de grace. You should noticed that Micheal is dressed like a roman legionnaire. Remember that all of our depictions of Angels, Virgins and Jesus come are heavily influenced by Greco Roman art. 

Isidor von Sevilla

This Saint was an important political figure. Together with his brother he helped convert the Visigoths Aryans to Catholicism. Thanks to his effort Catholicism exist in Spain.  He is usually portrayed with his white priestly robes and a book. He was less monkish and more of the priestly kind of Saint. In any case, all that I remember of him was this prayer, "San Isidor, laborer, take the rain and bring the sun".

San Leandro

 I think he is the brother of San Isidor. He is arranged exactly like his brother except that he is holding up  parchment. 

Saint Augustine in Ecstasy

 Saint Augustine was an early church philosopher and theologian. He developed the concept of the church as a spiritual City of God. He converted to Christianity after he read an account of the works of Saint Anthony of the Desert. After he read this, he saw the hearth of Christ and heard a childlike voice telling him "take up and read". This painting is depicting the moment he was converted. He is gazing at the heart of Christ that has the words "take up and read" written in Latin.Truly , this Murillo painting is five star worthy.

San Francisco Solano y el toro

 San Francisco Solano dedicated his life to converting the Protestants back to Catholicism. During a debate on predestination with a protestant he became convinced that he was going to hell. This taught made him ill. However, he visited a church and found peace. He became convinced that God was love. During this period he came into the conclusion that heart the virgin Mary was a model of how God's Mercy worked in the world. I am not too familiar with the whole bull incident. In any case, for some reason Murillo depicted him with a Bull near so townsfolk.

The vision of St. Francis at Porziuncola

 This painting shows St. Francis having a vision of Christ with his mother. The Virgin is asking Jesus to bless St. Francis. Meanwhile the angels are showering flowers over the altar. The flowers on the floor show that the vision is real. Jesus and Mary did appear to St. Francis in the flesh. 

A girl with Fruits

We finally moved onto the meek. When Murillo was not painting angels and virgins he liked to paint his neighbors. Some of his best and most beautiful paintings where dedicated to his mundane life. Above we see a simple fruit girl. She seems to be blushing. I guess she never imagined becoming the subject of such an infamous painter. 

The Toilette 

In the old days, the Toilette was different from the toilet. It was the area where people got ready to go out. In paintings we usually saw rich noblewomen with mirrors and pearls getting ready. Here we see a peasant boy whose grandma is fixing his hair.  Meanwhile he is eating while his puppy begs for food. 

A Girl and her Duenna

 I think Duenna means housekeeper. From what I heard of them they are pretty annoying. They basically babysit virgin girls and make certain they are chaste by the time they reach the altar. 

Isaac Blessing Jacob 

 In the next painting we see Jacob pretending to be Esau receiving the Blessing from his blind father. Rebecca tricked her husband because Jacob was her favorite son. 

Auto Murillo

Ok, so that is it for Murillo. I am gonna start shortening these blogs from now on. As for his self portrait, it is pretty neat how his hand is getting out of the border. Pretty weird hu? Kinda surrealist in its own unique fashion. Good day, to you folks and good night.