WEBVTT

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We just received news from Spain
about a painting exposition in Seville

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that has turned out to be
one of the biggest successes in years,

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probably because
one of their main attractions

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is a painting of the Louvre Museum:

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The young beggar,
often called The Lice-Ridden boy.

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This work from the Sevillian painter
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo

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returns to its home in Paris

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after its last five month journey to
the city where it was painted: Seville.

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MURILLO\'S LAST JOURNEY

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Run, my dear fellow, to Seville,
and for the first time in your life

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know what the great artist
is Murillo, Murillo, Murillo.

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Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)
British Prime Minister

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SEVILLE

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Murillo is an unexplored
and misunderstood painter.

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There was a period when Murillo was
the most respected Spanish painter,

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if not the only one.

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RESTORER

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Neither Velazquez, El Greco nor
any other was known abroad, only Murillo.

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ARTIST AND CURATOR

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Oddly enough, the Carlists,

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those who called themselves
the Immaculates at the time,

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made an attempt to turn Murillo
into someone blessed, a Saint.

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ART HISTORY PROFESSOR AND CURATOR

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He was interpreted as a religious painter
because it was of interest back then.

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Nearly all myths
come from the 19th century

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because it\'s when national
identities were created.

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Back then, roles were given to painters.

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Velázquez got his
and Murillo got the worst

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because he was unfortunately disregarded.

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That image, that had cooperated

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ART HISTORY PROFESSOR AND CURATOR

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to praise the artist in a
certain moment due to ideological issues,

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that same historiography that praised
him has also been largely responsible

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for having later
on another historiography

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to make him fall from grace.

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They are \"wearable\" paintings...

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ANTIQUES EXPERT

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...unlike those of Valdés Leal.

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Who\'s going to hang In the blink
of an eye inside their house?

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Who\'s going to have
the cut-off heads he painted?

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Very well painted, sure.
But it should be in a museum,

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don\'t you dare hang that in my house
because I\'d leave.

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Murillo\'s still part of the culture,
idiosyncrasy

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and the way we Sevillians are.

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ANTIQUES EXPERT

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You can find Murillo
in a lot of contemporary painters.

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Without Murillo, painting
wouldn\'t have become what it was later.

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We wouldn\'t have Carmen Lafont,
Cristina Ybarra or Cristina Duclos.

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Murillo\'s shadow is very extended,

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it stretches into our days and I think
even longer because Murillo is Seville.

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I am positive

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that the reason of Murillo\'s misfortune
was a box of quince.

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It\'s the same old story:
if you intensify the good things

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and try to emulate and repeat them
excessively, they end up degenerated.

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So Murillo\'s works started to be
replicated at the end of the 19th century

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in printed postcards,
engravings, picture cards,

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calendars, etcetera...

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ART HISTORY FULL PROFESSOR

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...usually made
with poor technical quality

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that degraded Murillo\'s original paintings
in shape and colour profoundly.

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LOUVRE MUSEUM CURATOR

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All that visual invasion
has damaged the direct access a bit,

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the direct valuation of his basis.

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That is the reason why we need

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to go to see Murillo\'s paintings, so we
can realize what a brilliant artist he is.

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Murillo\'s life begins

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during the last days of 1617.

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He gets baptised the first day of 1618.

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He lives in a home full of siblings

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where the father, a barber-surgeon,

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lives comfortably in Seville,
a city that back in those days, in 1618,

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was heading towards

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an inevitable decline.

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ART HISTORY FULL PROFESSOR

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It is a moment of inflection
in Sevillian culture and economy.

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It\'s a city of contrasts where
you find great fortunes on one side

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and a world of beggars on the other,

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where people scrape out a living
out of the little resources they have

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but that is still
a cosmopolitan city full of life

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with people from Italy and the Netherlands

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bringing an international flavour to it.

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The Guadalquivir River used to be
where the big galleons berthed.

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It was a bustling world where you could
find the so-called Mal Baratillo,

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a market next to a dump
of filth and garbage

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where most of the big buildings
were linked to the American world:

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Customs, the warehouses,
the Torre del Oro and the Mint.

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The trade with America merged
around this area

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where criminals,
vagabonds and beggars seethed.

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There where all kinds of languages
and ethnics:

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some moors remained,
black and Indian slaves,

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all of them roaming
the harbour and the sandbank,

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arriving from all around Spain

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with expectations of the American dream.

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Back then, Seville was a city
with a huge activity of artistic nature

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requested mainly from two sides:

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the Church, constantly seeking
works of art to renew itself,

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but also civilians who requested

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portraits, landscapes,
still life paintings, etc.

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This city could still boast about having

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an international atmosphere
because of its relations with the dutch

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and italians who would later
become friends and sponsors of Murillo.

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It\'s a city that
is living a seething artistic moment,

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where painters like Pacheco

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are going to centralize
the study of the art.

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Most of the masters will learn
at their studios

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and two great universal geniuses

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like Diego Velázquez
and Alonso Cano will appear there.

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We are here, children,
to see the paintings

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of one of the most important
artists you can find in this museum.

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We are celebrating the 400 anniversary
of the birth of the author

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of paintings like this one here.

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His name was Murillo.

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You do know who this is, don\'t you?

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He\'s Jesus. And what do you think is
happening down here at his feet?

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Who are they and what are they doing?

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I believe he\'s asleep or something.

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It looks like he\'s asleep, right?
Fast asleep.

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Snoring at the feet of Jesus.

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It\'s like a miracle.

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It is indeed a miracle
that someone resurrects, isn\'t it?

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One of the most important miracles.

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Murillo started painting

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probably around 1635, 1636 or 1637.

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In 1645, the San Francisco Convent

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entrusted him the decorations
of the small cloisters.

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The series of small cloisters
in San Francisco convent

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is how he makes himself known
in the city of Seville.

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It is a unique opportunity

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in which, for the first time,

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his work...

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is regarded as an instrument

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by the Franciscans themselves.

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What is it that Murillo
wants to tell us with his works?

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There is a very clear interpretation
of the defence of trade unions.

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Even the fact that there is
a lack of bread gets criticized,

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as well as the increase of prices.

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There\'s a clear conscience

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of wanting to represent hunger,
depopulation

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as well as poverty.

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What Murillo does
from the very first moment

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is introduce aspects of civil life
into religious paintings

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in a way that makes religious content
appear friendlier, more pleasant,

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less distant and dramatic

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and so it makes people
more attracted to it.

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Murillo clearly turns into an instrument

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of the transmission
of a series of values and codes.

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These paintings,
as seen by the Sevillian people,

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announce that someone completely new
has arrived

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with a creative spirit
in Sevillian painting.

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Something that always
caught my attention of that work

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is children\'s heads
in their different attitudes.

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From the ecstasy and the resignation

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of the one with the crossed hands,
resigned in his poverty,

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to the one who looks at
Saint Diego de Alcalá with devotion,

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or the one who is focused on his prayer.

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But none of them look at the food
that will be their sustenance.

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They seem to reflect

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on the situation they find themselves in.

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Much of that reflection about
their destinies is shown in their faces,

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even in the averted
eyes of the mother holding the child.

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From this woman

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with her child
with worn-out clothes in her arms,

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to the one who grabs the bowl

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trying to get some charity soup,

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there exists a very clear attempt

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to show a series of codes
in their attitudes and gestures,

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which are recognized
by somebody contemplating the work

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and so they display
that image of poverty and helplessness.

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Murillo is still up-to-date
because of what he evokes.

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He\'s turned into an anachronistic icon.

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The same image that evoked
a series of values in the past

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is still used to evoke different values
now and more importantly,

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it still touches people.

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What does that graffiti in the
Tres mil viviendas neighbourhood mean?

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It means that people who lived
in the Murillo Quarter

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within the Tres mil viviendas
identify themselves with that image.

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But these children no longer steal.

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These children develop their skills
and talent through music.

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In 1649 Seville had 120,000 inhabitants.

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In 1650, a year after,
Seville lost half of them

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so it had 60 000.

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The black death turned out to be really
dramatic and traumatizing for Seville.

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They had to dig...

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ART HISTORY PROFESSOR

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temporary gravesites on the outskirts

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to bury all the bodies.

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Entire families died.

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The city lost population and workforce

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and it brought ruin
and bankruptcy to the city council.

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Citizens were living harshly and poorly.

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There was misery,
hunger and disease all around.

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That was also the reason

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why people joined religion as a way out.

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There was a steady increase
of popular devotion.

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People prayed rosaries in the streets

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and the number of crosses
multiplied all around the city.

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That situation of famine
and social dissatisfaction

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is very well described
by Martínez de Mata in his memorials.

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He precisely depicted the scenes

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where people died around
the Hospital de las Cinco Llagas.

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Under those circumstances,
Murillo couldn\'t keep a dry...

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ART HISTORY PROFESSOR

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harsh and cold style like Zurbarán\'s,

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where nobody ever smiles,

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while in Murillo\'s work you see kindness

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and heavenly characters who smile

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and stare pleasantly
at the earthly characters.

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That is Murillo\'s secret:

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he defuses the religious painting,
and so it becomes an aid

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to endure those terrible circumstances
suffered by his fellow citizens.

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If the themes are nice,
form should go with it.

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Since 1650\'s his painting
was brighter and more significant,

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with a lighter drawing and especially
more transparent in colour.

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Through this form he managed to create
religious characters like saints,

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the Virgin, Saint Joseph, Baby Jesus...

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A kind of recreated beauty,
extracted from reality but idealised

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and transformed by him
into a holly kind of beauty.

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He went from the bottom to the top
through a process of transformation

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and idealisation that no other artist
in history has ever achieved

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with such significance.

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Francisco de Herrera Jr.
was responsible for that change.

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The son of Francisco de Herrera

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really influenced Murillo\'s painting

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because he brought...

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the neo-Venetian movement
of the Triumphal Baroque from Italy.

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I bet Murillo was amazed.

00:21:46.960 --> 00:21:49.640
What Herrera brought
was the motion, dynamics,

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energy and histrionics
of the Baroque style.

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He opened a new world of possibilities

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with a more agile pen, placing lighter,

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friendlier
and more transparent colours, glares,

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steaminess and histrionics,
which are fundamental in Baroque.

00:22:11.520 --> 00:22:18.320
The landmark, not only for Murillo but
also most painters in Spain at the time,

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is Herrera\'s
The Triumph of Saint Hermenegildo,

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painted in Madrid in 1654.

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It\'s the most baroque,

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not only among all Spanish paintings
but in all painting history.

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It\'s the definition of baroque itself.

00:22:41.000 --> 00:22:46.440
The Triumph of Saint Hermenegildo
even amazed people in Madrid.

00:22:46.680 --> 00:22:48.760
Carreño, Richi and Pereda\'s generation

00:22:48.920 --> 00:22:51.400
found themselves
in a different artistic world.

00:23:04.400 --> 00:23:07.240
Looking at Murillo\'s career

00:23:07.480 --> 00:23:10.880
we come across a painter who
obviously had talent since the beginning,

00:23:11.160 --> 00:23:12.640
but he...

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DIRECTOR
OF THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF LONDON

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...needed apprenticeship
and time to find his own voice.

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Until late 1650\'s and early
1660\'s he didn\'t really take off.

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He realized that his painting

00:23:35.840 --> 00:23:41.160
was a bit behind
and he had to go to Madrid

00:23:41.560 --> 00:23:43.960
to see modern trends.

00:23:44.320 --> 00:23:45.520
PRADO MUSEUM CURATOR

00:23:45.640 --> 00:23:51.120
I think Murillo changed his style
voluntarily around the 1660\'s,

00:23:52.040 --> 00:23:54.360
rather late 1650\'s and early 1660\'s,

00:23:55.520 --> 00:23:57.200
after coming to Madrid.

00:24:06.400 --> 00:24:08.160
The journey to Madrid was decisive.

00:24:08.680 --> 00:24:11.960
We know very little,
practically nothing about

00:24:12.920 --> 00:24:14.600
what Murillo did when he was in Madrid.

00:24:15.720 --> 00:24:18.480
To me it seems very logical to think

00:24:18.600 --> 00:24:21.400
they were both
in personal contact since Velázquez

00:24:22.520 --> 00:24:27.320
was a painter at the Royal Court
who also came from Seville like Murillo,

00:24:27.880 --> 00:24:30.920
who was very renowned
in the Sevillian art scene back then.

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Surely Velázquez showed him
his works in progress

00:24:37.560 --> 00:24:40.440
and gave him access
to the royal collections.

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I\'m positive Murillo,
as Seville\'s most important painter,

00:24:44.640 --> 00:24:47.240
had access to the royal collections.

00:24:48.120 --> 00:24:51.200
There he got to know
the works of Rubens and Tiziano.

00:24:51.480 --> 00:24:55.460
He used Bloemaert\'s patterns
and Rubens\' patterns on compositions.

00:24:59.400 --> 00:25:03.080
He has an important drawing
of an Immaculate,

00:25:03.440 --> 00:25:08.140
which has been taken from
a very important Immaculate by Rubens,

00:25:08.360 --> 00:25:09.580
from the royal collections.

00:25:12.280 --> 00:25:16.680
He probably saw it there
or had some sort of contact with it.

00:25:17.240 --> 00:25:22.040
There are small clues
of compositional majesty

00:25:22.720 --> 00:25:25.960
that indicate he was in Madrid

00:25:26.240 --> 00:25:29.320
and he might have had access
to the royal collections.

00:25:29.800 --> 00:25:32.520
The secondary sources
from the 18th century

00:25:32.800 --> 00:25:35.640
show this connection did exist,

00:25:36.560 --> 00:25:38.760
it\'s described as a fact.

00:25:39.160 --> 00:25:43.320
What is left of Murillo
as a draughtsman is so little

00:25:43.520 --> 00:25:47.200
you can\'t be positive

00:25:47.760 --> 00:25:51.960
but there are two significant
drawings at the Prado Museum:

00:25:53.240 --> 00:25:57.160
On the underlying drawing
the child is very different.

00:25:57.520 --> 00:26:02.120
It\'s a shepherd boy,
not a very important boy.

00:26:02.480 --> 00:26:06.520
And from that composition
that runs through the painting,

00:26:06.760 --> 00:26:11.280
from what we could see
through X-ray photograph,

00:26:11.440 --> 00:26:15.480
we realised he changed it completely.

00:26:15.600 --> 00:26:18.800
He was about to finish it
when he suddenly transformed that boy

00:26:18.920 --> 00:26:23.560
into some sort of demigod,
a Crown Prince.

00:26:27.200 --> 00:26:30.400
I believe this happened
because of his contact with Velázquez

00:26:30.520 --> 00:26:35.280
and one of the works he had
in his studio while Murillo was there.

00:26:36.080 --> 00:26:39.000
In it you can see
the infant Margarita facing forward

00:26:39.120 --> 00:26:41.920
with that gleaming power and superiority.

00:26:42.280 --> 00:26:45.000
This work was of course
The Ladies-in-Waiting.

00:26:50.600 --> 00:26:51.760
We aren\'t positive about that.

00:26:51.920 --> 00:26:56.600
It is likely and natural to suppose
they had some kind of human contact.

00:26:56.840 --> 00:27:01.920
And Murillo should have had an enormous
interest in the royal collections.

00:27:03.520 --> 00:27:06.760
We don\'t know whether he wanted
to stay at the royal collection

00:27:07.400 --> 00:27:13.120
in Madrid and pursue
that road of glory like Velázquez

00:27:13.520 --> 00:27:16.160
or if he\'d rather stay in Seville.

00:27:16.320 --> 00:27:21.360
Carreño, Coello, Pereda,
Mateo Cerezo lived in Madrid,

00:27:21.640 --> 00:27:24.400
up to more
than half a dozen important painters,

00:27:24.560 --> 00:27:28.440
so it would have been difficult
for him to reach supremacy.

00:27:28.600 --> 00:27:32.080
There were other problems
that made it clear to him

00:27:32.200 --> 00:27:35.360
he could not set foot in the royal court.

00:27:39.200 --> 00:27:45.000
It is likely Velázquez had little interest
for Murillo to stay at the royal court.

00:27:45.680 --> 00:27:48.920
Velázquez dominated the courtly scene,

00:27:49.080 --> 00:27:52.520
but I also think Velázquez
was very interested in being regarded

00:27:52.640 --> 00:27:57.800
as the \"headlight\" of the
artistic universe in Madrid.

00:27:59.880 --> 00:28:02.800
LONDON

00:28:06.480 --> 00:28:11.360
Murillo\'s Self-portrait
at the National Gallery

00:28:11.680 --> 00:28:15.200
is a very interesting work because,
as in every other self-portrait,

00:28:15.400 --> 00:28:19.120
its author is leaving us
not so much an abstract image of himself

00:28:20.240 --> 00:28:22.160
as a constructed one.

00:28:23.800 --> 00:28:26.440
Rhetorically,
it emphasises the construction

00:28:26.600 --> 00:28:29.140
he wants to show of his own image

00:28:29.460 --> 00:28:30.460
and it does so...

00:28:31.000 --> 00:28:33.640
as a trompe l\'oeil,
that is, deceiving the eye.

00:28:34.840 --> 00:28:40.800
It\'s telling us that despite
Murillo having been especially associated

00:28:40.960 --> 00:28:46.080
with colour and framed into
the so-called \"cult of the colourists\",

00:28:46.320 --> 00:28:51.840
he considered himself
an artist guided by drawing,

00:28:52.000 --> 00:28:55.120
whose work\'s fundamental starting point

00:28:56.240 --> 00:29:01.800
is an intellectual
and scientific conception of painting.

00:29:02.960 --> 00:29:07.320
It’s one
of the most sophisticated thoughts

00:29:07.480 --> 00:29:12.800
about an artist\'s role and the nature
of painting during the Golden Age.

00:29:13.000 --> 00:29:15.680
He claims
the natural process of the work of art

00:29:15.980 --> 00:29:17.280
in the artist\'s workshop,

00:29:17.580 --> 00:29:19.000
without any artifices.

00:29:19.160 --> 00:29:22.320
He understands art
as an intellectual tradition.

00:29:23.000 --> 00:29:24.000
He\'s presented

00:29:24.800 --> 00:29:29.000
as a painter
who\'s reached a certain social position.

00:29:29.260 --> 00:29:31.920
We can say so because of his clothes.

00:29:32.320 --> 00:29:35.800
He shows himself as a gifted artist.

00:29:36.000 --> 00:29:40.000
He boasts of using
a small chromatic range of colours,

00:29:40.440 --> 00:29:43.520
but from which he gets maximum resources.

00:29:43.640 --> 00:29:46.280
The painting is made especially of black

00:29:46.600 --> 00:29:50.540
and gray tones mixed with some splashes
of other colours like white.

00:29:50.720 --> 00:29:52.720
But he knows how to get the best

00:29:53.000 --> 00:29:57.400
out of those tones in a way
only a great master is capable of.

00:29:58.360 --> 00:30:01.240
He\'s also represented
as an ingenious artist

00:30:01.440 --> 00:30:04.800
and he boasts of placing his hand

00:30:04.960 --> 00:30:09.000
on the stone frame
that technically restricts his image.

00:30:09.200 --> 00:30:14.400
Under the oval that frames it,
there\'s an inscription in Latin

00:30:14.800 --> 00:30:19.080
where Murillo wrote his name
and a dedication for his children.

00:30:19.360 --> 00:30:24.960
He\'s introducing himself to the future.

00:30:25.320 --> 00:30:27.080
And his children, his biological ones,

00:30:27.320 --> 00:30:30.800
aren\'t the future.
He\'s referring to his \"artistic children.\"

00:30:31.120 --> 00:30:35.960
He intends to leave
his artistic legacy to future generations

00:30:36.200 --> 00:30:42.560
so when this picture is
vastly acknowledged in the 19th century,

00:30:42.880 --> 00:30:47.520
he achieved his goal:
to remain alive over the course of time.

00:30:55.360 --> 00:30:57.580
He changed again in the final period.

00:30:57.740 --> 00:31:00.080
That vigorous force
he had during his youth

00:31:00.360 --> 00:31:05.080
is transformed into a harsh melancholy.

00:31:06.720 --> 00:31:12.400
It causes whoever
is in front of his paintings

00:31:13.280 --> 00:31:17.440
not to be comfortable looking
at those works

00:31:17.760 --> 00:31:19.960
that are mostly religious,

00:31:20.280 --> 00:31:23.200
made for us to reflect on the afterlife

00:31:23.320 --> 00:31:25.720
and the fact that nothing bad will come,

00:31:26.120 --> 00:31:28.520
but it looks like the opposite.

00:31:28.640 --> 00:31:30.560
Again, he uses black tones

00:31:30.720 --> 00:31:34.200
and shows a struggle.

00:31:39.000 --> 00:31:41.780
There\'s an extraordinary ease
with the brush

00:31:41.920 --> 00:31:46.320
but, on the other hand,
he uses very sober, stark colours

00:31:46.680 --> 00:31:51.760
to reinforce an intention: repentance.

00:31:53.360 --> 00:31:57.800
A painter works with colours,
it’s his world.

00:31:58.160 --> 00:32:00.080
Those dark,

00:32:01.640 --> 00:32:06.920
blue colours, dark earths, that gray
in the background of the landscape.

00:32:07.360 --> 00:32:09.960
That\'s not the way it should be.

00:32:10.680 --> 00:32:13.080
Other artists show hope

00:32:13.200 --> 00:32:17.600
in Saint Peter\'s repentance
but here Saint Peter

00:32:17.840 --> 00:32:19.320
actually looks finished.

00:32:25.320 --> 00:32:28.360
He\'s in absolute despair,

00:32:28.760 --> 00:32:30.960
as if he had understood
that it\'s really the end.

00:32:41.150 --> 00:32:43.800
\"To perpetuate the memory
of the famous Sevillian painter Murillo,

00:32:43.960 --> 00:32:45.760
the Academy agreed to put up this plaque.\"

00:32:45.920 --> 00:32:50.800
His death glorifies him.
A demand of themes

00:32:50.960 --> 00:32:53.680
that couldn\'t be painted
by Murillo anymore

00:32:53.800 --> 00:32:56.000
but that could have his stamp flourishes.

00:32:56.200 --> 00:32:58.160
Sometimes,
these works made by his followers

00:32:58.320 --> 00:33:01.320
have been mistaken for Murillo\'s.

00:33:01.800 --> 00:33:02.920
In the 17th century,

00:33:03.600 --> 00:33:08.760
in France, they had
a significant taste for genre painting.

00:33:09.240 --> 00:33:13.280
Murillo knew Flemish taste very well.

00:33:14.000 --> 00:33:16.600
What happened to all those paintings?
They left Spain,

00:33:16.960 --> 00:33:20.400
spreading Murillo\'s fame all over Europe.

00:33:20.920 --> 00:33:24.200
In 1728, Philip V

00:33:24.360 --> 00:33:27.520
and Elisabeth Farnese are crowned.

00:33:27.800 --> 00:33:32.600
He was a great collector
and Murillo\'s devotee.

00:33:33.080 --> 00:33:37.440
He got nearly a dozen wonderful Murillos
that were later added

00:33:37.520 --> 00:33:40.480
to his collection in the Royal Palace
of La Granja de San Ildefonso.

00:33:41.000 --> 00:33:45.240
Undoubtedly, this extended the influence

00:33:45.360 --> 00:33:47.960
and taste of Murillo around Europe.

00:33:49.000 --> 00:33:53.520
Every important person
wanted to have a Murillo.

00:33:53.640 --> 00:33:56.800
English, French and German museums,

00:33:56.960 --> 00:34:00.400
collectors...
Even the Russian Tsar wanted one.

00:34:00.560 --> 00:34:03.120
It was said: \"If someone
couldn\'t pay for a Murillo,

00:34:03.640 --> 00:34:06.240
they could at least buy a copy.\"

00:34:06.360 --> 00:34:09.760
There was a Murillo
available for any budget.

00:34:10.040 --> 00:34:11.240
GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY PROFESSOR

00:34:11.320 --> 00:34:15.960
A Royal Act issued by
Charles III forbade selling Murillos

00:34:16.360 --> 00:34:17.600
to avoid them leaving Spain,

00:34:17.760 --> 00:34:20.320
because he was so reputed in Europe.

00:34:26.460 --> 00:34:30.040
The French invasion of Spain started
in 1808.

00:34:33.760 --> 00:34:38.680
Soon after, Marshal Soult came as
General Captain of the Midday Army.

00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:49.480
He became Marshal of the Imperial Army,
Minister of War with Louis XVIII

00:34:49.600 --> 00:34:51.880
and Chief of Staff with Napoleon,

00:34:53.080 --> 00:34:55.440
so he was untouchable.

00:34:55.600 --> 00:34:57.280
Marshal Soult entered...

00:34:58.080 --> 00:35:00.840
the warehouse,
that is, the hypothetical Art Gallery

00:35:01.560 --> 00:35:05.240
of Seville which never was so,

00:35:05.760 --> 00:35:08.080
and took about 170 works.

00:35:08.160 --> 00:35:09.280
INVENTORY OF PAINTINGS

00:35:09.360 --> 00:35:13.040
From the inventory of 999 paintings,
the first 15 are Murillos.

00:35:14.880 --> 00:35:17.280
The Marshal had a good eye

00:35:17.600 --> 00:35:20.460
by bringing important paintings
from Spain to Paris,

00:35:20.640 --> 00:35:23.040
the artistic capital of the world.

00:35:23.200 --> 00:35:25.520
They started creating
their own collections.

00:35:25.940 --> 00:35:30.000
It wasn\'t by chance
the French generals chose

00:35:30.300 --> 00:35:32.780
the big palaces of Seville for residence.

00:35:33.000 --> 00:35:37.700
He chose the Archbishop\'s Palace
as his headquarters,

00:35:38.000 --> 00:35:40.840
from where he\'d control Andalusia.

00:35:41.900 --> 00:35:46.060
They decorated those palaces
with works of art

00:35:46.400 --> 00:35:48.480
taken from other places in Seville.

00:35:51.160 --> 00:35:54.960
He went to convents and looted them,

00:35:55.320 --> 00:35:57.920
taking their most important paintings.

00:35:58.600 --> 00:36:03.000
He clearly didn\'t act correctly.

00:36:04.000 --> 00:36:06.100
But times were different, right?

00:36:06.620 --> 00:36:09.000
INVENTORY OF PAINTINGS
ROYAL PALACE OF SEVILLE

00:36:09.120 --> 00:36:12.640
The paintings from the Hospital
de los Venerables, Santa Paula Convent,

00:36:12.800 --> 00:36:16.720
the Cathedral, other women\'s convents
like Santa Isabel\'s that housed

00:36:17.440 --> 00:36:21.040
The Day of Judgement by Francisco
Pacheco and Nativity by Roelas.

00:36:21.680 --> 00:36:26.040
He was untouchable
according to French historiography

00:36:27.000 --> 00:36:29.480
but for Spanish historiography
he was a devil.

00:36:30.720 --> 00:36:34.120
Soult knew Murillo very well

00:36:34.560 --> 00:36:37.080
because he went straight
to his best paintings.

00:36:38.280 --> 00:36:42.640
He loved them,
he was an enthusiast of Spanish paintings.

00:36:43.680 --> 00:36:45.840
He never spoke
about it as theft or pillaging,

00:36:47.040 --> 00:36:48.920
but about the beauty
of this kind of paintings.

00:36:49.800 --> 00:36:52.680
So he values them and gives them
an important artistic value.

00:36:53.840 --> 00:36:57.120
Soult had a clear idea
of the value of his collection,

00:36:58.760 --> 00:37:01.640
both from the artistic
and economic perspective.

00:37:03.040 --> 00:37:06.440
He could distinguish
a Murillo from one that wasn\'t.

00:37:07.120 --> 00:37:09.520
He didn\'t sell his collection in parts.

00:37:09.640 --> 00:37:13.880
He wanted to exchange it
entirely for a huge fortune.

00:37:14.260 --> 00:37:16.160
Soult kept his collection for life.

00:37:16.480 --> 00:37:19.320
His heirs released it in 1852.

00:37:20.600 --> 00:37:23.200
Since then, it\'s been scattered

00:37:24.000 --> 00:37:26.480
around different museums
all over the world.

00:37:27.000 --> 00:37:29.160
Those paintings will never return
to Seville.

00:38:23.000 --> 00:38:25.000
ORIGINAL AT THE PRADO MUSEUM (MADRID)

00:38:28.720 --> 00:38:30.000
LOUVRE MUSEUM (PARIS, FRANCE)

00:38:32.000 --> 00:38:34.000
FARINGDON COLLECTION (BUSCOT, UK)

00:38:34.500 --> 00:38:36.500
PRADO MUSEUM (MADRID)

00:38:37.300 --> 00:38:39.600
SZÉPMUVÉSZETI MÚZEUM (BUDAPEST, HUNGARY)

00:38:40.300 --> 00:38:43.000
LOUVRE MUSEUM (PARIS, FRANCE)

00:38:48.800 --> 00:38:50.800
LOUVRE MUSEUM (PARIS, FRANCE)

00:38:56.680 --> 00:38:59.000
LOUVRE MUSEUM (PARIS, FRANCE)

00:39:05.720 --> 00:39:11.640
ROYAL ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS
OF SAN FERNANDO (MADRID)

00:39:12.120 --> 00:39:14.000
NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART (WASHINGTON D.C., USA)

00:39:14.400 --> 00:39:16.400
NATIONAL GALLERY (LONDON, UK)

00:39:30.700 --> 00:39:31.880
FOCUS ABENGOA FOUNDATION,

00:39:32.000 --> 00:39:34.120
HOSPITAL OF THE VENERABLE PRIESTS
IN SEVILLE (RECOVERED)

00:39:52.260 --> 00:39:55.000
PRADO MUSEUM (MADRID)

00:39:56.000 --> 00:39:59.400
No, I don\'t think Marshal Soult
was a bad man.

00:40:30.080 --> 00:40:33.320
The story of Murillo\'s
Immaculate Conception here at the Louvre

00:40:33.440 --> 00:40:35.000
is very important,

00:40:35.680 --> 00:40:37.520
although a bit sad for us.

00:40:37.680 --> 00:40:42.960
When Soult\'s collection
was sold by the early 1850s,

00:40:43.080 --> 00:40:47.360
the Immaculate Conception
reached the largest price

00:40:47.520 --> 00:40:49.440
ever paid until then.

00:40:49.800 --> 00:40:52.800
615,300 francs.

00:40:53.080 --> 00:40:55.240
The acquisition by the Louvre Museum

00:40:55.960 --> 00:41:00.480
gives a very specific clue

00:41:00.640 --> 00:41:06.000
about how valued he was, becoming
the most expensive artist at the time.

00:41:09.560 --> 00:41:14.280
From 1850 to 1870,

00:41:14.560 --> 00:41:18.360
Murillo reaches
his maximum international recognition

00:41:18.600 --> 00:41:22.560
as the most perfect painter
from both the form

00:41:23.000 --> 00:41:24.680
and the spirit point of view.

00:41:24.840 --> 00:41:25.760
This means that

00:41:26.160 --> 00:41:30.880
Murillo\'s Immaculate Conception,
the one taken by Soult

00:41:31.000 --> 00:41:35.360
from the Hospital de los Venerables
and once donated by Justino de Neve,

00:41:35.740 --> 00:41:37.680
represents the image of power.

00:41:37.800 --> 00:41:39.800
Those leaders bidding for the work

00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:42.160
don\'t see the Catholic religion in it,

00:41:42.300 --> 00:41:47.150
neither is its story interesting to them
because many consider it a fable.

00:41:47.300 --> 00:41:50.000
What they see in that Immaculate
Conception is the image of power.

00:41:55.520 --> 00:41:59.680
That\'s why the dictator Franco

00:41:59.800 --> 00:42:01.800
claimed that painting.

00:42:01.920 --> 00:42:03.320
It became an obsession for him

00:42:03.400 --> 00:42:06.680
because he wanted to use
the image of that Immaculate

00:42:07.040 --> 00:42:12.520
for propaganda of his own regime:
National Catholicism.

00:42:16.920 --> 00:42:21.960
The Immaculate Conception returned
to Spain as part of an agreement

00:42:22.080 --> 00:42:24.360
between Franco and Petain

00:42:24.640 --> 00:42:31.400
by which France
would exchange the Lady of Elche,

00:42:31.520 --> 00:42:33.440
the Immaculate Conception

00:42:34.360 --> 00:42:37.320
and very important works
of the Treasure of Guarrazar

00:42:37.480 --> 00:42:45.360
for El Greco\'s Self-portrait and also
a work attributed then to Velázquez.

00:42:45.600 --> 00:42:51.600
Their interest in Spanish artists went
with the international flow at the time.

00:42:52.040 --> 00:42:55.920
Murillo was no longer interesting.

00:42:56.440 --> 00:43:02.160
If the Prado Museum was willing to give
us back the Immaculate Conception,

00:43:03.400 --> 00:43:05.040
I\'d gladly take it.

00:43:09.480 --> 00:43:15.640
It went right off into the Prado Museum
where it became an icon

00:43:15.840 --> 00:43:19.920
for the exalted National Catholicism.

00:43:20.520 --> 00:43:26.280
The Immaculate
was truly interesting for them

00:43:26.480 --> 00:43:29.920
because it embodied

00:43:30.000 --> 00:43:36.680
the concepts of
\"unblemished\", \"pure\" and \"pristine\".

00:43:39.360 --> 00:43:43.440
When Franco finally got
this exchange with Petain

00:43:45.840 --> 00:43:49.840
the French press at the time presented it

00:43:50.480 --> 00:43:53.760
as a rip-off and weren\'t happy about it.

00:43:57.340 --> 00:44:02.440
But there was a side of the press

00:44:03.040 --> 00:44:07.900
close to the Vichy regime that tried
to justify this exchange saying Murillo

00:44:08.480 --> 00:44:11.000
was a decadent artist.
They actually used the word \"decadent\",

00:44:11.160 --> 00:44:14.080
in the sense
that he was no longer in his glory.

00:44:15.480 --> 00:44:18.520
At that time, taste changed

00:44:19.000 --> 00:44:25.760
and both artists
and critics preferred Velázquez

00:44:26.000 --> 00:44:30.400
because he was regarded
as a conceptual painter

00:44:30.880 --> 00:44:37.760
interested in broader capabilities
of this art.

00:44:38.040 --> 00:44:43.480
Looking at Picasso and Bracht
in the early 20th century,

00:44:43.960 --> 00:44:47.120
they were trying to find out
how the formal language

00:44:47.240 --> 00:44:50.840
of painting could be taken
to a different level.

00:44:51.120 --> 00:44:55.920
This preference for Murillo
was closely related to religion

00:44:56.040 --> 00:44:59.240
and sentimentalism.

00:45:00.120 --> 00:45:02.920
But he was no longer a trend.

00:45:03.840 --> 00:45:07.480
Now we should get over the 20th century,
right?

00:45:07.640 --> 00:45:09.880
We should focus on the 21st century

00:45:09.560 --> 00:45:16.040
to realize that, in certain situations,
tenderness might be interesting.

00:45:29.640 --> 00:45:33.200
Murillo holds a solid place

00:45:33.520 --> 00:45:39.720
within our artistic national memory.

00:45:40.120 --> 00:45:46.400
He\'s achieved one of the finest goals of
European painting since the Renaissance:

00:45:46.640 --> 00:45:50.920
the unity of action and emotion.

00:45:51.520 --> 00:45:55.320
His painting is very innovative
since it breaks away

00:45:55.760 --> 00:46:00.640
from the usual itinerary and rhythm
used in Seville up to that time.

00:46:00.800 --> 00:46:02.760
He focused on the basics...

00:46:03.680 --> 00:46:05.520
avoiding the incidentals.

00:46:07.080 --> 00:46:10.840
That might be the reason
why Murillo evokes feelings

00:46:11.360 --> 00:46:16.160
and his paintings
are rather more emotional than narrative.

00:46:16.440 --> 00:46:20.680
The art of painting goes ahead
to the modern times that were to come.

00:46:20.840 --> 00:46:25.080
His painting is especially pleasant
and nice to look at.

00:46:25.200 --> 00:46:29.920
It contemplates, recreates and, sometimes,

00:46:30.040 --> 00:46:36.080
it comforts both your eyes
and your feelings.

00:46:36.600 --> 00:46:41.680
He\'s definitely a very interesting artist

00:46:41.840 --> 00:46:47.120
who can help us understand both the 17th
century and ourselves as human beings

00:46:47.240 --> 00:46:50.000
in a world that\'s ultimately deceptive.

00:46:53.120 --> 00:46:55.720
But people like Murillo

00:46:56.320 --> 00:47:01.400
express themselves showing their feelings
using the established imagery

00:47:01.720 --> 00:47:03.880
but subverting it completely.

00:47:42.000 --> 00:47:44.000
PARIS

00:48:56.720 --> 00:48:57.680
Go ahead!

00:49:56.680 --> 00:49:58.600
May we measure it in the meantime?

00:50:20.960 --> 00:50:22.720
Move the ladder, please.

00:50:25.640 --> 00:50:29.400
That\'s good.
Leave it like this. Thank you.