The Story of Seville Part 11

" Evangelists. Ditto.

" Saints. Ditto.

Herrera, el Mozo Several Works. Cathedral.

(1622-1685).

" " Museo.

Juan de las Roelas Martyrdom of St. Museo.

(1560-1625). Andrew.

" Other works. Ditto.

" Death of San San Isidore.

Isidore.

Juan de las Roelas San Santiago. Cap de Santiago, (1560-1625). Cathedral.

" Holy Family. The University.

" Nativity. Ditto.

" Adoration of the Ditto.

Shepherds.

Herrera, el Viego Legend of St. Museo.

(1576-1656). Herminigild.

" Other works. Ditto.

" St. Michael and the San Bernardo.

Hosts of the Wicked.

Juan de Castillo a.s.sumption. Museo.

(1584-1640).

" Other pictures. Ditto.

" Virgin and Child. House of Murillo.

" Other works. The Churches.

Francisco Pacheco Many works. Museo.

(1571-1654).

" " House of Murillo.

" " Cathedral.

" " Churches.

Francisco de Zurbaran Legend of St. Cap de St. Pedro, (1598-1661). Pedro. Cathedral.

" Death of St. Museo.

Thomas Aquinas.

" Other works. Ditto.

" Eight Female Hospital del Sangre.

Saints.

Alonso Cano Our Lady of Altar de la Virgin (1601-1667). Bethlehem. de Belen, Cathedral.

Juan de Valdes Leal San Ildefonso. Cap de St. Francisco, (1630-1691). Cathedral.

" Pictures ill.u.s.trating Hospital de la the vanity Caridad.

of worldly grandeur.

" Many works. Museo.

CHAPTER IX

_Velazquez and Murillo_

'The more the artist studies Nature, the nearer he approaches to the true and perfect idea of art.'--Sir J. REYNOLDS.

On the 15th of June, in the year 1599, Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazquez was born in Seville. Eighteen years later affords the record of birth of Murillo. Contemporary, or nearly so, they began their lives in the same environment, yet from their earliest youth they tended to develop upon divergent lines. The young Velazquez, at the age of thirteen, became the pupil of the vigorous Herrera, while Murillo entered the school of the academic Juan de Castillo.

It was reserved for Velazquez to break away from the traditional limitations of the Sevillian school, while the work of Murillo was to develop them to their fairest fruition.

The national manner, begun by Herrera and developed by Zurbaran, was, by the genius of Velazquez, carried to perfect fulfilment.

The grave and truthful simplicity of his pictures is unsurpa.s.sed among the artistic records of any nation. His supreme effort was directed to the portrayal of Nature. With unerring judgment he selected the essential details of a composition, and painted them with unflinching fidelity. He depicted each colour precisely as the lighting of his canvas revealed it to him. He is the master of chiaroscuro, by the perfect unity of his tones. His style is wholly personal, his pictures bear pre-eminently the mark of individual expression. From his earliest youth this was his method of work. 'He kept,' Pacheco tells us, in the account he gives of his pupil and son-in-law, in his _Arte de la Pintura_, 'a peasant lad, as an apprentice, who served him as a study in different actions and postures--sometimes crying, sometimes laughing--till he had grappled with every difficulty of expression; and from him he executed an infinite variety of heads, in charcoal and chalk on blue paper, by which he arrived at certainty in taking likeness.' In this way did Velazquez train his power; and we are able to comprehend the wonderful portraits, which have rendered the House of Austria familiar to the world, when we picture the youth drawing his slave, again and yet again, in different att.i.tudes and ever varied changes of expression.

This, then, was the divergence between the methods of Velazquez and Murillo. The one painted Nature as she was; the other depicted men and women as they never could be, but in the guise of saints, according to the desires of the Catholic Church. It is in this dis-similarity of their aims, that we shall find the explanation of the fact, which cannot fail to impress the visitor to Seville, that, while the city abounds in the works of Murillo, no single picture from the hand of Velazquez is to be found in Cathedral, Church or Museo. The city of his birth is dest.i.tute of any commemoration of his genius, if we exclude a few pictures, of very doubtful authenticity, to be found in some of the private collections.

The art of Seville was maintained by the munificence of the Church.

Painting was the handmaid of the Catholic religion. Pictures were painted for the glory of G.o.d; they were valued as aids in the due performance of religious observance rather than as works of art. For the artist whose supreme desire was to follow truth Seville was no home.

Realism was opposed to the very essence of the Catholic mind. The mediaeval spirit did not exist in Velazquez, the most modern of all the old masters; he yearned for a freer and wider scope for the development of his genius.

In March, 1621, Philip III. died, and was succeeded by his young son, Philip IV., who at once began to collect about the throne the literary and artistic genius of the day.

Accompanied by Pacheco, Velazquez went to Madrid and craved an audience of the King. The favour was denied, and after some months of waiting, the young artist returned to Seville. Next year he again sought the metropolis. One of the Canons of Seville Cathedral, Don Juan Fonseca, had obtained a post in the King's service; Velazquez painted his portrait. It was carried to the palace before it was dry, and in an hour the whole court had seen it. 'It excited the admiration of the capital,'

writes Pacheco, exulting in the success of his favourite, 'and the envy of those of the profession, of which I can bear witness.' Velazquez's position was a.s.sured. He was formally received into the King's service, and became a member of the royal household. His genius was lost to Seville. He is cla.s.sed among the artists of Castile, and to study his works it is necessary to visit, not Seville, but the Prado Museo, at Madrid.

Of the pictures he painted in his youth none remain in Seville. The most famous are The Water Carrier, or Aguador, now in the collection of the Duke of Wellington, at Apsley House; The Omelet belonging to the late Sir Francis Cook; St. John in Patmos and The Woman and the Dragon, the property of Sir Bartle Frere; The Epiphany in the Prado Museo; and The Adoration of the Shepherds in the National Gallery.

The Water Carrier and The Omelet are studies of street life, finished with great care; a cla.s.s of picture known as _bodegones_, often painted by the Spanish artists. The former is the finer work. It is a magnificent instance of Velazquez's power during his student days.

Either a study for this picture, executed by Velazquez himself, or a copy by one of his pupils, can be seen in the house of Murillo. The courteous owner, Senor Don Lopez Cepero, is always willing to show his valuable collection of pictures. He believes the work to be a genuine Velazquez, and it is just possible that it may be so, and in any case it is a study of much interest. The Corsican water-seller, clad in his brown frock, a well-known figure in the streets of Seville, hands a gla.s.s of water to a boy, while in the distance another figure is dimly discerned, with his face buried in an earthenware mug. The background is very dark; the figures alone stand in the light. There is no scenery, and the accessories are painted with absolute truth.

While the art of Velazquez was unsuited to the city of his birth, the works of Murillo breathed the very spirit of the life around him. His pictures represent the religious emotion of his period; they may fittingly be termed, 'the embodied expression of Spanish Catholicism, during the seventeenth century.'

This fact in a large measure accounts for the popularity of Murillo, and the rapid recognition which his merits received at the hands of his countrymen. His art appealed pointedly to the hearts of the people; the expression of his genius was comprehensible to them all. He speedily became the favourite artist in Spain, and his fame gradually extended throughout Europe.

Murillo's artistic career may be divided into four periods. During the first he was needy and unrecognised, gaining a precarious livelihood by painting rude pictures for the Feria, a weekly fair, held every Thursday at the northern end of the Old Alameda, in front of the Church of All Saints. The artistic training he had received was slight. Juan de Castillo, who, as a relative of the family, had taught the boy free of charge, left Seville, and the young Murillo was too poor to enter the schools of Herrera, Pacheco, or Zurbaran. He was obliged to toil with strenuous effort to support himself and his sister, who was dependent upon him.

We can picture the future genius of Seville, standing in the market of the Feria, exposing his pictures for sale. He would often paint them while he waited, or would alter each composition to suit the fancy of an intending purchaser. Ambitious dreams fired his imagination. Pedro de Moya, an artist friend, had been to Rome, and had returned imbued with the glories of the metropolis of art. Murillo aspired to visit Italy, and with this hope he toiled, until he had saved a sufficient sum to take him to Madrid. He at once sought the counsel and protection of his old friend Velazquez. The court artist received him with the utmost kindness. He gave him lodging in his own apartments, and obtained permission for him to work in the Royal Galleries. A new world was revealed to the young Murillo. For two years he worked, then Velazquez advised him to go to Italy, to continue his studies in Rome, or Florence. He offered him letters of introduction, and did all in his power to induce him to undertake the journey, but for some reason Murillo declined his offer and returned to Seville.

His earliest work was to paint a series of studies of the Legend of St.

Francis, for the Franciscan Convent, formerly situated behind the Casa del Ayuntamiento. They at once a.s.sured his fame; the unknown artist became the most popular painter in opulent Seville. The only person who failed to acknowledge his genius was Francisco Pacheco. Jealous for the fame of Velazquez, and unable to forgive the lack of appreciation which Seville had tended to his favourite, he makes no mention of Murillo or his works, in his _Arte de la Pintura_; a curious omission only to be accounted for by private enmity.

None of the Franciscan cycle of pictures are in Seville, and only two, The Heavenly Violinist, and The Charity of St. Diego, are in Spain. They were carried away by the French during the War of Independence.