Angels kitchen
The Angels' Kitchen, 1646. Oil on canvas, 180 x 450 cm, Paris, Musée du Louvre
This is perhaps the most popular work in the series from the small cloister of the Seville convent of San Francisco, as well as the one that best incorporates hints of what would later become Murillo's unmistakable style. The painting's fame is confirmed by the fact that Davies, the painter's biographer, tried unsuccessfully to take it to London before the French invasion to restore it with the funds raised from its public exhibition.
During the War of Independence, the canvas, like others in the same series, was stolen from Spain by Marshal Soult. In 1858, it was sold to the Louvre for the not inconsiderable sum of 85,000 francs.
The subject of the painting has been much discussed. The earliest interpretations speak of a miracle of Saint Diego, although no miracle related to a convent kitchen is known. The corresponding octave at the foot of the canvas mentions a certain Francisco, so it could be a miracle attributed to Friar Francisco Pérez, a former friar of the monastery, famous throughout the city for his devotion. The scene narrates the episode in which this friar, while levitating in ecstasy, is surprised by two knights and two Franciscan brothers. In charge of the convent kitchen, Friar Francisco, who has neglected his duties, is assisted by angels and cherubs, who tend the stove and prepare the food.
The landscape painting, of considerable proportions, allows Murillo to demonstrate his talent for complex spatial composition and the construction of a scene closer to genre painting than to purely religious painting, as reflected in the detailed study of the still lifes. In fact, the success of this popular painting in 17th-century Seville lies in its successful fusion of the material and the celestial; human types and seraphic figures move in a very familiar setting. A detailed study of the canvas reveals the influence of Velázquez and Zurbarán, as well as a familiarity with the painting of Titian and Van Dyck, which would have served as the basis for the execution of the angels and cherubs.
In his early pictures Murillo seems to have drawn the figures one by one, without attempting to unify the composition. But in the famous painting known as the Angels' Kitchen there is a greater narrative cohesion. Although the name of the protagonist is still somewhat uncertain, he may be the lay brother Francisco Pérez from the nearby town Alcalá de Guadaira, who spent thirty years as an assistant in the kitchen of the monastery San Francisco el Grande. According to the story he was much given to fervent prayer and one day became so lost in his devotions that he neglected his duties. Upon returning to consciousness, he was surprised to see that his chores had been miraculously accomplished.
Murillo has embellished the legend with irresistibly charming details. Fray Francisco, who is bathed in an aura of golden light, floats above the ground in a mystical rapture. Next to him stand exquisitely painted angels, with richly coloured wings, while at the right putti and angels tackle the work of preparing the meal, grinding spices, stirring the hotpot, and setting the table in the midst of a delicious still-life of vegetables and cookware. Painted when the artist was approaching thirty years of age, this painting announces the arrival of a new talent and temper in Sevillian painting.
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