| Bartolomè Esteban Murillo (Spanish, 1617 – 1682)
Four Angels
Oil on canvas
18 1/4 x 24 1/8 inches (46.4 x 61.3 cm)
view larger
Provenance:
J. H. Anderdon, Farley Hall, Berks, 1843;
John Proctor Anderdon, 1847;
Alexander S. Anderdon Weston, great-nephew of the above;
Mrs. Isabelle Frances Weston; her estate sale, Christie's, London, October 21, 1949, lot 44
with Sabin, London;
Sale, Parke-Bernet, New York, March 13, 1957, lot 30;
Private Collection, New York;
Private Collection, Madrid
Exhibited:
Albuquerque Museum of Art and History, El Alma de España; The Soul of Spain, April 17-July 31, 2005
Literature:
Mari-Tere Alvarez, in El Alma de España; The Soul of Spain,
exh. cat., Albuquerque 2005, pp. 210-211 ill., and on back cover, cat. no. 58.
Between 1668 and 1669, Murillo executed a series of paintings to decorate the
side chapels of the Church of the Convento de los Capuchinos in Seville. In the
first chapel on the left side of the nave, facing towards the principal altar,
he painted a large canvas representing Saint Anthony with the Infant Christ.
This work remained in the church until its expropriation by the Spanish
government in the years 1835 to 1836, at which time it passed to the Museo
de Bellas Artes in Seville.
The theme of St. Anthony and the Infant Christ enjoyed great popularity
in Seville throughout the seventeenth century, and Murillo painted it on
several occasions. In the Seville altarpiece the artist depicted the saint
and Christ Child in a mystical embrace, one characterized by gestures full
of warmth and affection. From the principal two figures Murillo draws the
viewer's gaze upwards to the group of four angels who fly among the clouds
in the upper portion of the painting. These angels are arranged in various
positions, requiring difficult foreshortening by the artist in each, and
their gestures and postures in turn lead the viewer's gaze back down to
the protagonists below.
The present painting of four angels is a preparatory sketch, or bozzetto,
for that group. Such a study would have been painted in small format for
the artist's own use, both as a working study for the intricate arrangement
of the figures and subsequently as a precise model for the final, large-scale
execution on canvas. As with other oil sketches by the artist, this bozzetto
demonstrates Murillo's facility in composition and his fluid and expressive
brushwork. The combination of precisely rendered details and freer, more
spontaneous passages reflects the artist's broad synthesis of traditional
representation and spirited improvisation in his work.
Professor Alfonso Pérez Sánchez and Professor Enrique Valdivieso have
seen the present painting and confirmed Murillo's authorship with a date
in the late 1660s.
|
