Virgin and Child1670s
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo painted this in the 1670s, aged about 53. It is now at The Met in New York. More about this work
About this work
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo painted this in the 1670s, aged about 53. It is now at The Met in New York.
How it was made
- Oil paint
- Pigment ground in a drying oil, usually linseed. It dries slowly, so painters could blend on the canvas, build up thin translucent glazes, and rework a picture over weeks. Canvas replaced wooden panels in the 1500s because it is lighter and can be rolled.
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
Spanish, 1617–1682 · Born and died in Seville.
Murillo spent nearly all his life in Seville, where he became the city’s leading painter after Zurbarán. His tender religious scenes, especially his many Immaculate Conceptions, and his warm, softly lit pictures of street children made him one of the most popular Spanish painters in Europe in later centuries. In 1660 he helped found an academy of drawing in Seville. He died after a fall from scaffolding while painting an altarpiece in Cádiz.
Written by Ochre Editions.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The Met has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 43.13
- Credit
- Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Type
- Paintings
- Department
- European Paintings
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
