Murillo
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Murillo. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
moo-ree'lyo (1617-1682), the most eminent of Spanish painters. He was born of poor parents at Seville. He studied at Madrid. In the early days of his poverty he painted small madonnas by the dozen for sale to the churches in the Spanish provinces of Mexico and Peru. In 1813 the Duke of Wellington tried in vain to buy his greatest painting, St. Anthony of Padua, from the Cathedral of Seville for as many gold pieces as could be placed on the enormous canvas. One picture, the Conception was sold in 1852 to the Louvre in France for $120,000. Murillo's pictures may be classed in two groups. Those of his youth are chiefly of beggars, gypsies, and rural life. The other group includes madonnas and other Scriptural subjects. Among these are St. Anthony of Padua, Moses, Striking the Rock, Abraham and the Angels, The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes, St. Peter Released from Prison, and St. Elizabeth. In 1648 Murillo married a woman of fortune. His home at Seville became the resort of artists and people of fashion. In 1660 he founded the art academy of Seville and became its president. While painting an altar piece for the church of the Capuchins at Cadiz he fell from a scaffold. He was borne home to Seville but did not recover. At one time, it is said to oblige a cook, he painted the Virgin on a napkin. It is still known as the "Virgin of the Napkin." See Painting
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
BARTOLOMÉ ESTEBAN (mö-rēl'yō), a Spanish painter; born in rudiments of art from his uncle, Juan Seville, Spain, in 1618. He acquired the de Castillo; and being encouraged to visit Madrid, he acquired the countenance and patronage of the great painter his repи- Velasquez, then in the height of tation. He afterward returned to Seville, and there founded an Academy of Paint ing, and earned by his labors an imperprincipal works are: ishable fame. His "The Return of the Prodigal Son"; "Abraham Visited by the Angels"; "Christ Healing the Sick of the Palsy"; "The Pool of Bethesda"; - but his masterpiece is "Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception," painted in 1678, and purchased by the French government for the sum of $118,000. He died in Seville, April 3, 1682.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Both accounts describe the "Immaculate Conception" bought by the Louvre in 1852 for around $120,000 — the record price for any painting at the time — but it is no longer in Paris: France handed it back to Spain in 1941 in an exchange of works, and it now hangs in the Prado in Madrid. Aiton's 1910 date of birth, 1617, and Collier's 1618 are both nearly right; Murillo was baptized in Seville on 1 January 1618. Aiton's story of Wellington offering gold pieces for the "St. Anthony of Padua" in Seville Cathedral omits what came after: in 1874 a thief cut the figure of the saint out of the canvas, and the fragment was recovered in New York and stitched back. The larger shift is in reputation — the sweet, popular Murillo of these entries was pushed down the Spanish ranking during the 20th century in favour of Velázquez, Zurbarán and El Greco, and only partly rehabilitated by the exhibitions marking his tercentenary in 1982.
Written for this edition, 2026.