Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (bä-to-lö'-mā ās-ta'-bän

mū-ril'-lō), 1618-1682

ECOND in rank among the

among the Spanish painters stands Murillo. He was born in Seville, began painting there under Juan del Castillo, and in 1641 went to Madrid, where, kindly aided by Velazquez, he studied the masterpieces there gathered, especially the work of Ribera, Van Dyck and Velazquez. Instead of carrying out his original plan of a journey to Italy and Flanders for study, he chose to return to Seville in 1645 and begin the business of producing pictures.

Here he led an uneventful and prosperous life, painting in the earlier days some secular subjects, beggar boys and figures, but in the main his life was spent making religious pictures for the churches, convents and hospitals of Spain. Of these he produced a large quantity, usually of great excellence. But although he married in 1648 a rich wife, as he died poor, it is to be supposed that his work was but illy paid.

Murillo's earlier and colder style grew into a warm, mellow, rich-toned manner, in which the outlines are softened, all severity and violence are banished, and sacred themes, in a pleasing or a loftier conception, are rendered in a style refined and dignified, without affectation or mere prettiness.

The Holy Family here shown is in the Prado or Royal Gallery near Madrid. From the goldfinch in the hand of the Infant Christ, it is called, "El Pajarito." Murillo has here wished to show the Holy Family in its simple daily life in Judea, the humble carpenter's household, with no allusion to the sublime character and future of the personages. It is really a Spanish family scene, delightful in its sincerity.

D

Portrait of Bernard van Orley
Albrecht Dürer (dü'-rer), 1471-1528

ÜRER is the greatest name among the painters born on Ger-
Much as he loved his native Nuremberg, he was

man soil.

for his time quite a traveler, and the two most brilliant episodes in his life are his visit of a year in 1505 to Italy, particularly in Venice, then at the height of its artistic glory, and the famous visit in 1520 and 1521 to the Netherlands. He was then renowned all over the Europe of that day, especially through his unrivaled engravings on metal and wood, which were widely scattered.

Provided with many passports and letters and carrying a large stock of his prints, he set out on the formidable journey from Nuremberg to Antwerp, economizing his money when possible by paying expenses with his art wares, or exchanging them for the favor of influential persons and for curiosities which took his fancy.

In Antwerp he was welcomed, banqueted and highly honored, and there and elsewhere he met artists and scholars, Erasmus among others, saw Charles V crowned at Aix la Chapelle, and was named his court painter. The great ones were quite ready to receive his excellent prints but chary of payment. For money or to show his art he painted several portraits in Belgium.

Among these was this likeness of Bernard van Orley, 1491-1542, a painter of Brussels, who had studied under Raphael in Rome, and with Michael Cocxie had the superintendence of making the tapestries after Raphael's cartoons for the Vatican.

This energetic, virile portrait, broadly drawn, is characteristic of Dürer for its sincerity and truth. In his work are mirrored, in detail, the costumes, the manners and the men of his time.