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Dawson Turner, Esq. York-Rev. J. Kenrick, M.A. J. Phillips, Esq., F.R.S., F.G S. THOMAS COATES, Esq., Secretary, No. 59, Lincoln's Inn Fields. London: Printed by WILLIAM CLOWES and SONS, Stamford Street, THE PENNY CYCLOPÆDIA OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE DIFFUSION OF USEFUL KNOWLEDGE. MUR MUR In the MURILLO, BARTOLOMEO ESTEBAN, the most emi- city and in the National Museum at Madrid. Many of his nent artist of the school of Seville, and the most distin- works are in France, particularly in the collection of Marguished colourist of the Spanish painters, was born at shal Soult,* and in the collections of the English nobility Ševille in the year 1618. As he manifested at a very early and gentry. The Dresden Gallery has a fine Virgin and age an inclination to painting, he was placed under his Child by his hand. Several of his pictures are at Munich, uncle, Juan del Castillo, an artist of merit, whose favourite and others at Vienna, in the possession of Prince Esterhazy. subjects were fairs and markets, and whose pupils, Alonso. By the collection of several Murillos from the convents of Cano, Murillo, and Pedro Moya, rank as the best Andalu-Seville, a museum has recently been formed in the cathesian artists. Under him Murillo made rapid progress, and dral of that city; and there are many more in the National painted several pictures while he remained with his uncle. Museum at Madrid. The picture which Murillo preferred After leaving him he continued to improve in drawing as to all his other works was that of St. Thomas de Villa well as in painting. For some time he painted in the Flo- Nueva distributing Alms to the Sick and the Poor. This, rentine style, which then prevailed in Spain, and several we presume, is the picture in the possession of Mr. Wells, works of this his first period are still preserved at Seville. of which Dr. Waagen says, This fine picture was forIn order to improve himself in drawing, he was on the point merly in the church of the Franciscans at Genoa. The of going to England to see Vandyck, when he heard of the subject was a peculiarly happy one for Murillo. death of that great master. He then applied with great head of the saint, in which priestly dignity and gravity are diligence to the painting of small pictures of saints, for the admirably expressed, he proves his ability in treating such trade with America, by which he obtained funds sufficient religious subjects from the legends of the monkish saints. to undertake, in 1643, a journey to Madrid. Here he de- The cripples and the sick afforded him, on the other hand, rived great advantage from the instruction of his country- an ample field to show his skill in representations from comman Velazquez, who likewise obtained for him permission mon life, which we so highly admire in his beggar boys.' Dr. to copy the master-pieces of Titian, Rubens, Vandyck, and Waagen describes likewise another picture of the same subRibera, in the royal collection. Returning to Seville in ject, 10 feet high and 6 feet wide, now in Lord Ashburton's 1645, he excited general admiration by his paintings in the collection, purchased by his lordship of General Sebastiani, convent of St. Francis. They were in the style of Spagno- and which was formerly at Seville. We refer to Dr. Waagen's leto (José Ribera) and Velazquez, then unknown at Se- work on Arts and Artists in England' for descriptions of ville, and procured him many commissions. He painted the numerous pictures by Murillo in our English collections. several historical pictures for the king of Spain, which Murillo raised the art of painting in Spain not only by his gained him great reputation in his own country, and, being own works, but by founding an academy at Seville, of which sent to Rome as a present to the pope, so highly pleased he was president from the year 1660 till his death. (Cean the Italians, that they called him a second Paul Veronese. Bermudez, Diccion. de Profes. Españo. de Bellas Artes; He likewise painted many grand altar-pieces for the Ponz, Viage de España; El Artista, 1835; La Revista de churches and convents in Madrid, Seville, Cordova, Cadiz, Madrid, Enero, 1839.) and Granada. Among these are eight large pictures representing the works of Mercy, for the church of St. George in the hospital De la Caridad' of Seville, which are distinguished for their admirable composition and force of colouring. Other equally excellent works adorned the church of Los Venerables and the Capucin convent, for which latter he painted twenty-eight pictures, which were afterwards sent to America. He was engaged on an altar-piece representing the marriage of St. Catherine, for the Capucin convent at Cadiz, when he met with an accident on the scaffolding, from which he never recovered, and he died at Seville, on the 3rd of April, 1685. But though Murillo was thus eminent in the higher departments of the art, his favourite subjects were beggar boys as large as life engaged in various amusements, which he generally designed after nature. His pictures of such subjects are highly esteemed for their merit, and may be seen in the collections of the English nobility; but there are numberless copies. Murillo excelled likewise in portraits and landscapes. His works are distinguished by their striking character of truth, nature, and simplicity; by the entire absence of the servility of imitation; and by the delicacy of his touch, and the mellowness of his colouring, which in fact seem perfect in every particular. Among his finest pictures are Moses striking the Rock,' and 'Christ feeding the Five Thousand,' in the convent of St. Francis, at Seville; and St. Antony of Padua,' in the cathedral of that P. C., No. 977. 6 MURPHY, ARTHUR, a dramatic and miscellaneous writer, was born near Elphin, in the county of Roscommon, Ireland, December 27, 1730. His father was a merchant in Dublin. In 1740, Arthur Murphy was entered at the college of St. Omer, where he remained nearly seven years, and, on his return to Ireland, passed two years in a merchant's counting-house at Cork. From thence he came to London, and obtained a situation as clerk in a bankinghouse, shortly after which he commenced his career as a public writer. On the 21st of October, 1752, he started The Gray's Inn Journal,' a periodical in the style of the Spectator, which he carried on to October 12th, 1754. On the 18th of the same month he tried his fortune as an actor on the stage of Covent Garden, and in the character of Othello. His success was but moderate, and after a second season, during which he acted at Drury Lane, he quitted the boards for ever, and resumed his former occupation as a writer by commencing a periodical political journal called 'The Test.' He also began to study the law, but was refused admission to the societies of the Temple and of Gray's Inn on the ground of his having been an actor. He succeeded finally in obtaining admission to Lincoln's Inn, was called to the bar, appointed a commissioner of bankrupts, and died at Knightsbridge, June 18th, 1805, in the seventy-fifth year of his age. His principal works • Two of these, the 'Prodigal Son' and 'Abraham and the three Angels have been purchased by the Duke of Sutherland. VOL. XVI.-B |