The rosary

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo • Painting, 1655, 166×112 cm
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About the artwork
Art form: Painting
Subject and objects: Religious scene
Style of art: Baroque
Technique: Oil
Materials: Canvas
Date of creation: 1655
Size: 166×112 cm
Artwork in collection: Prado Irina Olikh
Artwork in selections: 11 selections

Description of the artwork «The rosary»

"The rosary" (variant of the name "Madonna with rosary"; rosarium – a traditional name for the Catholic rosary) was written by B. E. Murillo in 1650-ies in Seville, and in the early NINETEENTH century, purchased by king Charles IV for the collection of the Palace of the Escorial in Madrid. Now kept in the collection of the Prado Museum.

The composition and colour scheme of the "Madonna with the rosary" a lot of traditional. With the help of light figures stand out vividly against a dark background. The robe of the Madonna is only used for the canonical vestments of the blessed virgin – white, blue and red. Deep in the folds and creases of the fabric are written in the spirit of the Italian academicism with which the Spaniards were well acquainted. Nevertheless, the hand of Murillo "Madonna with the rosary" you can find almost unerringly.

This happens due to the open artist a new type. He lived all his life in the capital of Andalusia Seville, Murillo immortalized in paintings typical of the beauty of women in southern Spain. Its graceful dark-eyed Madonnas have a recognizable face with their impeccable features and gentle eyes. Innovation Murillo's idea to cover the head of the Madonna transparent gas veil and to give her a rosary.

However, overly perfect images of the Madonna, the artist pays tribute to not only religion but also Commerce. In the early seventeenth century, king Philip III declared the virgin patroness of Spain and of the "immaculate conception" (see also a series of similar paintings of Murillo) – the protection of the country against external enemies and internal threats. Many monasteries responded immediately to this, in fact, a political act by the order of the pictures corresponding contents. And Murillo was one of the first to develop a "gold mine".

The desire to please the average taste of the customer dilutes the internal tensions of creativity. Some of the Madonnas of Murillo (e.g., "Madonna and child" from the Dresden gallery and "Madonna with a napkin" from the Museum of Seville), from the point of view of art historians, "strike very amorphous", and in the paintings themselves it is noted lethargy shape and the banality of flavor.

About "Madonna with the rosary" do not. It is not "amorphous" is just naive and serious. It reflects people's beliefs about the blessed virgin, typical of the notorious Spanish religiosity. Madonna in the sentimental minds of ordinary Spaniards always perfect and beautiful with a delicate face and white hands, and the Baby is bound to be comely, plump and crispy. That's why, whatever claim or nominate judges, with the people's perspective, Murillo has always been and remains an ideal expression of religious content.

The virgin of Murillo wrote countless times. But this does not convert wizard puncher. In the book Elena Vaganova "Murillo and his time" (1988) you can meet valuable observation about how masterfully he diversifies the faces of his Madonnas are in the same Andalusian type: "No Mary, that would be like another. Always vary such details insignificant for Canon dogma, but fundamentally important for the physiognomy, as the eye (swelling, openness, the size of the cut), forehead (slightly sloping or straight), nose (longer, shorter, different form Crile), mouth (configuration and position of the lips), chin, the roundness of the cheeks. And there is an effect of the presence of many persons in one".

Author: Anna Yesterday
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