Discourses and Images of Poverty in the Paintings of Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617-1682)
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ORBIT-OnlineRepository ofBirkbeckInstitutionalTheses Enabling Open Access to Birkbeck’s Research Degree output Mediating otherness : discourses and images of poverty in the paintings of Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617-1682) https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/40335/ Version: Public Version Citation: Macdonald, Anne Mairi (2018) Mediating otherness : dis- courses and images of poverty in the paintings of Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617-1682). [Thesis] (Unpublished) c 2020 The Author(s) All material available through ORBIT is protected by intellectual property law, including copy- right law. Any use made of the contents should comply with the relevant law. Deposit Guide Contact: email 1 Mediating Otherness: Discourses and Images of Poverty in the Paintings of Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617 – 1682) Anne Mairi Macdonald Submitted in accordance with the degree of PhD. Birkbeck, University of London 2018 The candidate confirms that the work submitted is her own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others 2 Abstract of Thesis The following chapters investigate the significance of visual representations of poverty in the paintings by the Seville painter, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617-1682) and their relationship to discourses on poverty of the period. During an active career spanning more than forty years which was based almost exclusively in Seville, Murillo’s paintings of poor people in both religious and genre paintings constitute the widest extant range of representations of the poor in Spanish art of the seventeenth century. By focusing on discourses on poverty of the period, the networks of charitable assistance which existed in Seville and the nature of the image at that time, this study explores the extent to which Murillo’s images of the poor express changing perceptions of the poor and poor relief in early modern Spanish culture. Through an examination of Murillo’s paintings of the Adoration of the Shepherds, c. 1665-1670, Wallace Collection, London, Saint Thomas of Villanueva Distributing Alms, 1665-1668, Museo de Bellas Artes, Seville, Saint Elizabeth, Queen of Hungary Attending the Sick, c. 1670, Church of the Hermandad de la Caridad, Seville, and Three Boys Playing Dice, c. 1679-1680, Alte Pinakothek, Munich, I have sought to expand upon other scholars’ interpretations of Murillo’s images to discuss what assumptions are drawn on in these images and what forms of engagement are being encouraged. 3 Volume 1 Table of Contents Acknowledgments……………………………………………….…..…….………5 List of Illustrations……………………………………………….………6 Introduction ………………………………………………………..……17 Chapter 1………………………………………………………..…….....24 1.1 Murillo’s life and works………….…………………….…….....….…..…24 1.2 Murillo and poverty: a review of contemporary scholarship ......….….….35 Chapter 2 Discourses on Poverty …..……………………….….…...…..52 2.1 Sixteenth-century debates ….………………………………….……...….53 2.2 Arbitristas: Cristóbal Pérez de Herrera, Amparo de Pobres …….…….…58 2.3 Arbitristas: Francisco Martínez de Mata: Memoriales y Discursos…….....68 2.4 The Jesuit, Padre Pedro de León, Grandeza y Miseria en Andalucía ........75 2.5 Seville sermons …………………………………………………….....…..81 2.6 Don Miguel Mañara …………………………………………..…………..86 Chapter 3 Networks of Charitable Assistance in Seventeenth-Century Seville ……………………………………………………………..……..92 3.1 The providers of charity……………………………………...…..………..94 3.2 The beneficiaries of charity …………………………………...…………..96 3.3 Hospitals ………………………………………………………..…………99 3.4 Confraternities ………………………………………………………...…104 3.5 Institutional controls …………………………………………….……….105 Chapter 4 The Nature of the Image in Seventeenth-Century Seville ...…111 4.1 Christian images ……………………………..………………….…..……111 4 4.2 Fernando de la Torre Farfán: artistic accounts……………..……………120 4.3 Murillo’s collectors …………………………….……………….….……124 4.4 Secular images ………………………………………………….….…….131 4.5 Prints …………………………………………………………….….……136 Chapter 5 Murillo’s Shepherds and the Working Poor ………...…….…143 Chapter 6 Murillo’s “Deserving Poor” and the Nature of Charity….…...161 6.1 The nature of charity ……………………………………………….…….162 6.2 Saint Thomas of Villanueva ……………………………………………...164 6.2 “Saint Thomas of Villanueva Distributing Alms” c.1665-1668…………..168 6.3 “Saint Elizabeth, Queen of Hungary, Attending the Sick” c. 1672 ……....176 Chapter 7 Murillo’s Impoverished Children and the “Undeserving Poor” …………………………………………………………………..…….…184 7.1 Netherlandish links……………………………………………….....…….187 7.2 Sources …………………………………………………………..…..……191 7.3 Games of chance ………………………………………………….…...….193 7.4 Discourses of poverty ……………..……………………………….….….196 7.5 “A selective fictitious construct” ………………………….…………..….199 Conclusion…………………...………………………………….……….204 Bibliography………………………………………………………….….207 5 Acknowledgements This dissertation is the result of a lengthy academic process and I am very grateful to the many people who offered me their support and guidance along the way. Above all, I would like to extend my greatest thanks to my supervisor, Carmen Fracchia, for her unfailing support, insightful comments, and encouragement throughout the course of my research and writing. I am indebted to her for the inspiration, the innumerable helpful suggestions and invaluable advice she provided me with during this long process. I am also grateful to Centre for Iberian and Latin American Visual Studies (CILAVS) at Birkbeck for awarding me a grant for a research trip to Seville and to my collegues at Birkbeck for their assistance. Thanks are also due to María Dolores Fúster of the Instituto del Patrimonio Histórico in Madrid for her generosity in sharing her conservation work with me. I also wish to thank the staff members of the many archives and libraries I consulted, especially the Library of the Warburg Institute, the British Library, Senate House Library and the Library of the University of Seville. Special thanks are due to my friends and family for the love and encouragement I have received over the years. Most of all, I must thank my husband Simon for his unwavering confidence in my ability to produce this dissertation, his skill and patience as a proof reader and for his constant love and support. 6 List of Illustrations* Fig. 1. Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Self-Portrait, c. 1670-1675, 122 x 107 cm, National Gallery, London Fig. 2. Anon., View of Seville, 1643-1646, 168 x 279 cm, Fundación Focus-Abengoa, Seville Fig. 3. Murillo, Adoration of the Shepherds, c.1665-70, 144 x 217 cm, Wallace Collection, London Fig. 4. Murillo, Saint Thomas of Villanueva Distributing Alms, 1665-1668, 283 x 188 cm, Museo de Bellas Artes, Seville Fig. 5. Murillo, Saint Elizabeth, Queen of Hungary, Attending the Sick, c. 1670, 325 x 245 cm, Church of the Hermandad de la Carídad, Seville Fig. 6. Murillo, Three Boys Playing Dice, c. 1670-1680, 146 x 108 cm, Alte Pinakothek, Munich Fig. 7. Murillo, Saint Dominic Receiving the Rosary from the Virgin Mary, c. 1638- 1640, 207 x 162 cm, Archbishop’s Palace, Seville Fig. 8. Murillo, Saint Dominic Receiving the Rosary from the Virgin Mary, c. 1638- 1640, 160 x 110 cm, private collection, Madrid Fig. 9. Murillo, The Angels’ Kitchen, 1646, 180 x 450 cm, Louvre, Paris Fig. 10. Murillo, Saint Diego of Alcalá Feeding the Poor, c. 1645-1646, 173 x 183 cm, Museo de la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid Fig. 11. Murillo, Brother Juniper and the Poor Man, c. 1645-1646,176 x 222 cm, Louvre, Paris Fig. 12. Murillo, Saint Salvador of Horta and the Inquisitor of Aragón, c. 1645-1646, 178 x 190 cm, Musée Bonnat, Bayona Fig. 13. Murillo, Urchin Hunting Fleas, c. 1645-1650, 137 x 115 cm, Louvre, Paris Fig. 14. Murillo, Two Boys Eating Melon and Grapes, c. 1650, 146 x 104 cm, Alte Pinakothek, Munich 7 Fig. 15. Murillo, Holy Family with a Little Bird, c. 1650,144 x 188 cm, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid Fig. 16. Murillo, Saint Isidore, c. 1655, 193 x 165 cm, Cathedral, Seville Fig. 17. Murillo, Saint Leander, c. 1655, 193 x 165 cm, Cathedral, Seville Fig. 18 Murillo, Vision of St Anthony of Padua, 1656, 560 x 375 cm, Cathedral, Seville Fig. 19. Francisco de Herrera the Younger, Allegory of the Eucharist and the Immaculate Conception, 1655, 269 x 295 cm, Hermandad Sacramental del Sagrario, Seville Fig. 20. Francisco de Herrera the Younger, Stigmatization of St. Francis, 1657, 570 x 363 cm, Cathedral, Seville Fig. 21. Murillo, Birth of the Virgin, 179 x 349 cm, 1660, Louvre, Paris Fig. 22. Murillo, Old Woman with a Rooster and Basket of Eggs, c. 1650, 79 x 63 cm, Alte Pinakothek, Munich Fig. 23. Murillo, Old Woman with a Distaff, c. 1655-1660, 58 x 47 cm, The Hoare Collection, Stourhead Fig. 24. Murillo, Peasant Girl with Basket of Fruit and Flowers, c. 1655-1660, 76 x 71 cm, The State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow Fig. 25. Murillo, Urchin with a Dog and Basket, c. 1655-1660, 70 x 60 cm, Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg Fig. 26. Murillo, Two Women at a Window, c. 1655-1660, 125 x 104 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington Fig. 27. Murillo, Family Group, c. 1655-1660, 107 x 142 cm, Kimball Art Museum, Fort Worth Fig. 28. Murillo, A Young Man Drinking, c. 1655-1660, 63 x 48 cm, The National Gallery, London Fig. 29. Murillo, Laughing Boy, c.1660, 50 x 40 cm, private collection, Madrid Fig. 30. Murillo, The Prodigal Son Feeding Swine, c. 1660, 105 x 135 cm, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin 8 Fig. 31. Murillo, Dream of the Patrician and his Wife, 1664-1665, 231 x 524 cm, Prado, Madrid Fig. 32. Murillo, Jacob Laying the Peeled Rods before the Flocks of Laban, c. 1660, 213 x 358 cm, Meadows Museum, Dallas Fig. 33. Murillo, Saint Francis at the Portiuncula, c. 1665-1668, 430 x 295 cm, Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne Fig. 34. Murillo, Saints Justa and Rufina, c. 1665-1668, 200 x 176 cm, Museo de Bellas Artes, Seville Fig. 35. Murillo, Adoration of the Shepherds, c. 1665-1668, 282 x 118 cm, Museo de Bellas Artes, Seville Fig. 36. Murillo, Saint Thomas of Villanueva as a Child Dividing His Clothes among Beggar Boys, c. 1665-1670, 219 x 148 cm, Cincinnati Art Museum Fig.