Murillo, Bartolomé Esteban

Murillo, Bartolomé Esteban

(baptized Jan. 1, 1618, Sevilla, Spain—died April 3, 1682, Sevilla) Spanish painter. The most popular Baroque religious painter of 17th-century Spain, he is noted for his idealized figures, most of them painted for religious orders and the confraternities of his native Sevilla (Seville). His early works were executed in the naturalistic style of Francisco de Zurbarán, but with the development of his mature style in the 1650s he soon surpassed the older master in fame and popularity. The softly modeled forms, rich colours, and broad brushwork of the later paintings, such as the Immaculate Conception of 1652 (his favourite subject), reveal the influence of 16th-century Venetian and Flemish Baroque painters. Murillo's works were copied and imitated throughout Spain and its empire, and he was the first Spanish painter to achieve fame outside the Spanish world.