Testo in inglese.

 

Con i contributi di Jonathan Brown, William B. Jordan, Peter Cherry and Claire Barry.

 

Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, March 10 - June 16, 2002.Los Angeles, Country Museum of Art, July 14 - October 6, 2002.This glossy catalog of a current museum exhibition at the Kimbell Art Museum in Forth Worth, TX, showcases works by 17th-century Spanish Baroque master Murillo. 

A native of artistically independent Seville, Murillo was an opulent colorist who painted theatrically composed genre scenes and religious pictures in which the real world becomes infused with the spiritual. Until the late 19th century, when his reputation was eclipsed by Velasquez, Goya, and El Greco, he was seen as Spain's preeminent artistic product. But since then his pictures have fallen into disfavor, and he has received little critical attention. 

One reason certainly is a sentimentalism that at times verges on the saccharine. Unlike the now more popular Vermeer, for example, Murillo was not afraid to depict children (particularly in the context of the Holy Family) as pure innocence embodied.

This catalog is limited to the works in the show, which is itself limited to paintings from collections in the United States. While this scope feels restrictive, the 34 paintings on view here do span the breadth of Murillo's creative life, forming a representative cross section. The catalog section of the book is preceded by six biocritical essays on Murillo and his legacy, all seeking to rehabilitate an artist who has suffered unfair neglect.