The Influence of Caravaggio on Velázquez and

Murillo

By Elena Sánchez Rivera

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The Influence of Caravaggio on Velázquez and Murillo

Elena Sánchez Rivera

Dr. James Hutson

ARTH-35600/55600

May 2023
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Spain and Italy are Mediterranean countries very close geographically. The exchange

between both cultures has been constant throughout history, in fact, certain Italian territories,

such as Sardinia, Naples, Sicily, the Duchy of Milan, or Tuscany were under dependence of

the Hispanic Monarchy at some point during the XVI-XVII and XVIII centuries. During

these centuries there is no doubt that there was an intense financial, commercial and cultural

exchange.

To speak of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio is to speak of the Italian painter who,

due to his realism and his dramatic use of light, marked Italian Baroque painting and had a

great influence on other Baroque painters from nearby European countries such as Rubens,

Rembrandt, José de Ribera, Velázquez and Murillo among others.

The purpose of this paper is to know if Velázquez and Murillo, two Sevillian painters

of the Spanish Baroque, were mere followers-imitators of the great Italian painter or if they

developed their own styles in despite of his influence. This study will be carried out through

the analysis of their pictorial works.

The three great painters to be studied, Caravaggio, Velázquez and Murillo, are

considered baroque painters, however, we must begin by outlining some questions regarding

the time in which they painted, their geographical-historical context and the characteristics of

the baroque movement in their respective countries in order to know their interconnection

and what made each of them particular and unrepeatable.

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was born in Milan, Italy in 1571, mid-sixteenth

century, a time when art in Italy was already trying to break with mannerism through

exaggeration and dramatization. Caravaggio in painting, like Bernini in sculpture, would seek

realism and drama, using spotlights to achieve a sought dramatism. The use of light, in

intense chiaroscuro, which would come to be known as tenebrism and the use of natural

models from the street, shunning the ideals of beauty, for his production of religious and
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mythological representations, naturalism, was his hallmark and what made his theatrical

canvases cause a great impact in the Italy of the Counter-Reformation.1 . As for his pictorial

technique, once settle in Rome in 1592, according to Mancini, he started "to strengthen the

darkness and represent the figures within the darkness of a closed room, using high lamps

which beamed on the main parts of the bodies, leaving the rest in the shadow"2. He had a

notable influence on the painters of his time, as well as those of later centuries, such as

Velázquez and Murillo. Caravaggio died in 1606 at the beginning of the seventeenth century,

when the Spanish Baroque began and lasted until the eighteenth century.

Seven years before Caravaggio's death, Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez was

born in Seville. Seville was, in those years, the largest city in Spain and was a cosmopolitan

city, with a great cultural and artistic life product of being a port city and Port of the Indies 3.

From the age of 11 until the age to 24, he entered as an apprentice in the workshop of

Pacheco in Seville, an erudite painter and great connoisseur of Italian painting. It was during

this first stage when he can be considered a Caravaggist, influenced by the work of José de

Ribera4 and by the knowledge of Caravaggio´s works that arrived in Seville. We can clearly

see this influence of Caravaggio in Velázquez by focusing on three works: The Supper at

Emmaus, The Waterseller of Seville and Old Woman Frying Eggs.

1
Religious, cultural and political movement of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries dedicated to counteract the
advance of Protestantism. At first the Catholic Church of the Counter-Reformation rejected the works of
Caravaggio for using in their religious representation’s vulgar models, of the street as in The Death of the
Virgin, which for its naturalness and crudeness in representing the swollen virgin as a woman of the people was
rejected by the Church. However, it was precisely this aspect that made him a painter at the service of the
Catholic Church by connecting his paintings with the public and conveying through them the message of the
church of the Counter-Reformation.
2
Simone Mancini. Caravaggio´s Tecnique: The Taking of Christ, Advanced Research into Practice and Process.
An Irish Quaterly Review 104, no.416(Winter 2015/2016):403.
3
Seville during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was through the Guadalquivir River port of entry for all
the goods that came from the so-called Spanish America. This made it become a rich, cosmopolitan city with a
great cultural boom
4
José de Ribera was a Spanish painter of the seventeenth century who developed his career entirely in Italy first
in Rome and then under the orders of the Spanish viceroy in Naples, territory under the dominion of the Spanish
crown. There he was greatly influenced by Caravaggio. The works of José de Ribera came to Madrid through
the Spanish viceroys and it was through them that many Spanish painters came to know more closely the
tenebrism and naturalism of Caravaggio.
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The Supper at Emmaus by Caravaggio was painted in a first version in 1602, and in a

second in 1606, exhibited at the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan (Figure 1). For Mctighe “is the

first of Caravaggio´s painting done from memory instead of from direct study of posed

individuals”5.Velázquez's version is from 1618 and is in The Metropolitan Museum of Art in

New York (Figure 2). In this work, both Caravaggio and Velázquez show a religious scene

where the risen Jesus is depicted at the table with two of his disciples, Cleopas and Santiago

at the moment when the bread is blessed. The influence of Caravaggio can be observed in the

realistic interpretation, the great profusion of details both in faces and in the objects and food

placed on the table, as well as in the virtuosity in the representation of the folds and texture of

clothes and tablecloth, the direction of light, which for the viewer comes from the left, the

background in semi-darkness, and the type of dynamic composition based on the diagonal

and the postures of the characters with outstretched arms. There is also similarity in the

physical characteristics of the characters. They are not idealized faces, but rather taken from a

social, tragic, poor reality... like people weathered by a hard life.

In The Waterseller of Seville (Figure 3) Velázquez depicts a middle-aged water carrier

selling water on the street. He offers a young customer (probably the same one who appears

in the following painting Old Woman Frying Eggs) a large glass of water with a fig inside.

The influence of Caravaggio can be observed again in the realistic interpretation, great

profusion of details both in faces and in objects such as jars and the glass full of water, as

well as in clothes. Again, the light comes from the left, the background in semi-darkness and

in this, a third figure of a gentleman drinking. But where the influence of Caravaggio is most

noticeable is in the coloring, using a palette of reduced colors with earthy nuances, ochres

and browns, similarities that are appreciated by comparing it to Caravaggio's painting The

Entombment of Christ.
5
Sheila Mctighe .The End of Caravaggio. The Art Bulletin 88, no.3(Sep.2006):588.
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In the Old Woman Frying Eggs (Figure 4) Velázquez depicts an elderly woman frying

eggs in a kitchen. It is unusual in Spanish painting to depict an everyday scene. In the first

scene we see an old woman frying eggs next to a boy carrying a jug of wine and a melon. The

background is neutral to emphasize the lights and shadows using the techniques of Tenebrism

Naturalism. On the right side it represents one of the best still lifes of Spanish painting. In

order to be contemplated more easily, Velázquez raised the plane of the table, using a double

perspective, which centuries later would be used by the Impressionists. The realism of the

composition is manifested in the choice of models, characters of the Sevillian panorama of

the time, which are represented in the case of the old woman with dirt on her hair scarf. All

these details inform us that he not only knew Caravaggio´s work, probably from copies from

Italy or engravings, but that he was a faithful follower of his. In these early works his

brushstroke is very detailed very different from his loose brushstroke of his last paintings

(Las Meninas). The influence of Caravaggio can also be observed in the naturalistic lighting,

again with left-right direction, as in most of Caravaggio's paintings and the attention to

everyday details, the background in darkness and the two figures of the popular class, again

with faces nothing idealized, but quite the opposite, tremendously realistic. In this painting

each object seems to have a life of its own and it is striking how Velázquez seems to distance

himself from the Baroque style by distorting the perspective a little to be able to better see the

objects located on the table.

At the age of 24 Velázquez left for Madrid and was appointed court painter to Philip

IV, after the king saw a portrait of him made to Juan de Fonseca. Moving to Madrid would

mean abandoning tenebrism, the great influence of Caravaggio and the search for his own

style that would turn him into Manet's words in "The painter of painters". His work at court

consisted of painting portraits of the royal family, as well as pictures to decorate the palaces.

His stay at the court allowed him to know the works of other great painters such as Rubens,
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since King Philip IV was a great art collector. In the same way his trips to Italy, in 1629 and

1649, definitively mark his distance with tenebrism. On his first trip in 1629 to Italy

Velázquez studied the works of Michelangelo, Raphael, Cortona, traveled through Rome,

Genoa and Venice and studied the chromaticism of the Venetian painting. These influences

can already be seen in his works Joseph's Tunic and Apollo in the Forge of Vulcan.

Returning to Madrid from his first trip to Italy, 1631-1649, he painted some of his few

religious paintings, as Juan José La Huerta points out "an exception in his almost exclusively

secular painting"6, Christ Crucified (1632) or Temptation of St. Thomas (1632). Portraits of

the royal family such as Philip III, Philip IV, those of Queen Margaret and Isabella of

Bourbon (1635) and highlights from this period The Surrender of Breda (1635). During

these and the following years, the master's brushstroke gains more and more fluidity, as can

be seen in Don Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares (1638). In this diagonal

composition the range of colors stands out for its variety, blues, greens, ochres and grays with

a treatment of light that gives naturalness to what is represented. The brushstrokes, precise for

the count and the horse, are gradually released in the background, creating a magnificent

aerial perspective effect. These Velázquez no longer have anything to do with his early

paintings influenced by Caravaggio, his palette has gained in depth and imprints some

magical pictorial effects as can also be seen in his painting of the Portrait of Francisco

Lezcano and Sebastián Morra (1645). Velázquez is searching, experimenting with new forms

of painting, composition, light. Nevertheless, in 1650 he will continue to remind us of the

work of the great master Caravaggio, Portrait of Pope Paul V, with his work Portrait of

Innocent X. However, Velázquez will demonstrate in his last years 1651-1660 to which

belong Las Meninas (Figure 5), of which Lucas Jordan said was "The Theology of painting",

and The Spinners, (1657), the last great work of Velázquez, his originality. He will present in

6
Juan José LaHuerta. The Crucifixions of Velázquez and Zurbarán. Anthropology and Aesthetics 65/66,
no.65/66(2014/2015).274.
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these works a unique, personal and innovative style of capturing light and color, a loose

brushstroke that creates an effect of depth and movement that influenced later painters such

as Manet or Picasso, as opposed to the precise and detailed brushstroke of Caravaggio. He

also achieves in these compositions a masterful atmospheric perspective, as if the air were

painted between people and objects. Velázquez's palette has become more liquid where the

pictorial paste is sometimes condensed into thick and fast brushstrokes with unsurpassed

effects, precursor brushstrokes in 250 years of Impressionism.

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, 1618-1682, is the second painter of the Andalusian

school of the Spanish Baroque on whom we will also study the influence of Caravaggio.

Murillo is a contemporary of Velázquez and was born in the same city Seville, however,

unlike the latter, he hardly left his hometown, except for a trip he made to the Court where he

met Velázquez. It is through Velázquez and José de Ribera that Murillo receives the

influence of Caravaggio, initiating in his first stage a painting with chiaroscuro. It is in The

Young Beggar (Figure 6), one of the painter's first works, where Murillo represents a ragged

street child with great detail of clothing and with a masterful use of chiaroscuro and light

where we can establish an unequivocal influence of Caravaggio, or in works such as San

Diego Feeding the Poor, The Adoration of the Shepherds (Figure 7), The Last Supper. This

stage of tenebrism painting and late naturalism was followed by a radically different pictorial

stage, and one might even say that opposed to the influence of Caravaggio. Murillo abandons

street models, chiaroscuro, drama and seeks a work full of emotion and sweetness through the

representation of children and Immaculate Virgins that transmit a human goodness, with a

palette of pink colors as opposed to the dark representation of the deity of Caravaggio that as

Racco points out "for Caravaggio, as with Reinhardt, darkness is an inescapable condition of

the divine".7 The painter at this stage seeks to recreate peaceful and realistic scenes of
7
Tiffany Racco,.” Darkness in a Positive Light: Negative Theology in Caravaggio´s Conversion of Saint Paul”.
Artibus et Historiae 37,no.73( 2016):285.
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everyday and religious themes, as in The Holy family with a Little Bird or The Good

Sherpherd, emphasizing expression and emotion in figures loaded with sweetness in children

, women and virgins, as in The Immaculate Conception of Los Venerables(Figure 8). This

Murillo has nothing to do neither in color, nor in composition, nor in representation with

Caravaggio. An example of this is his work The Christ Child and the Infant John the Baptist

with a Shell (Figure 9), which narrates an episode of the childhood of Christ and San Juan

Bautista, made with exquisite chromaticism and richness of tonalities, anticipating the

eighteenth-century style.

Although Murillo, like Caravaggio, represented real characters, these in Murillo were

more softened than in the works of the Italian painter. He used light in a less theatrical and

warmer way, his color palette was more vivid, Caravaggio sought the tension of

representation, Murillo the emotion. Murillo created a painting with its own stamp very far

from that of Caravaggio with a search for the feeling and sweet emotion of his

representations of everyday subjects that gave rise to a new style in painting “costumbrismo”,

which as Solomon points out " (It) was particularly prized in England”.8

The study of the pictorial work of Velázquez and Murillo contemporary painters of

Spanish Baroque painting, Sevillian school,9 leads us to the conclusion that both connoisseurs

of the innovations introduced by Caravaggio in Italian Baroque painting of the sixteenth

century, introduced these innovations in their first works of the seventeenth century, stage of

the Spanish Baroque. Velázquez had the opportunity to get to know Caravaggio´s work for

the first time through his master Pacheco, in his workshop in Seville. Later he would have

occasion for a greater approach to the painting of Caravaggio at Court through the collection

8
Xavier Salomon.Murillo:Madrid,Sevilla and London.The Burlington Magazine 155,no.1323
(2013):425

9
In the Spanish Baroque three types of schools are differentiated: the Valencian school, to which Ribera
belonged, the Sevillian school, to which Velázquez, Zurbarán, Murillo belonged and the Madrid school to which
Carreño Miranda and Claudio Coello belonged.
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of Philip IV, since he was painter of the Royal Court. The case of Murillo is different since he

barely left his hometown, Seville. Murillo approaches Caravaggio through the work of

Zurbarán, José de Ribera and Velázquez. In the case of Velázquez, we have cited the works

in which great influence of the Italian master is appreciated, The Supper at Emmaus, The

Waterseller of Seville, Old Woman Frying Eggs influence that he abandons at an early age,

when he moves to the court, knows the work of Rubens and travels to Italy where he met the

chromaticism of other Italian painters of the Venetian painting. Light and color will begin to

appear in his work, banishing tenebrism, looking for new forms of composition. Murillo,

however, with a clear influence of Caravaggio in his first stage as a painter as reflected in the

works reviewed, abandons the influence of Caravaggio for other issues very different from

Velázquez. It could be said that his path in painting after this first stage, becomes totally

opposite. Caravaggio took as models people from the street, prostitutes, beggars ..., Murillo

would begin a stage of representation of everyday images reflecting kind, sweet models and

representation of beautiful, emotional virgins, with pastel colors, with lots of light. They are

compositions that radically flee from dramatism, as we can see in one of his works of his last

stage, Laughing Child Looking out the window. In fact, this was his hallmark as a painter and

why he has come to be recognized as an outstanding painter in the history of painting, for

having introduced the so-called “costumbrismo” and for his sweet and emotive Immaculate

Virgins. Velázquez created works that by composition10, color11, lighting, by his loose pre-

impressionist brushstrokes and by his visual impression to create a sense of immediacy and

10
Velázquez was a master of composition, and used techniques such as diagonality and balance to create a
sense of harmony and movement in his paintings. He also used perspective to give a sense of depth and three-
dimensional space on the canvas.

11
Velázquez used a limited but very effective color palette. His paintings are characterized by the harmony and
subtlety of their tonalities, and their ability to create the sensation of texture and volume using few colors.
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naturalness in his paintings, makes him a unique innovative painter, master of painters and

with a great influence on painters of later centuries such as Picasso or Manet. 12

In summary, we can say that despite the great influence that Caravaggio's work had on

Spanish Baroque painters such as Velázquez or Murillo in their early pictorial stages, both

Velázquez and Murillo developed their own unique, innovative and unmistakable style that

have made them great masters of painting.

Illustrations

Figure 1

12
Picasso studies and interprets Las Meninas by Velázquez and makes a collection of 58 paintings that are in
the Picasso Museum in Barcelona
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Caravaggio.

The Supper at Emmaus.

Circa 1602

The National Gallery, London.

Figure 2
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Velázquez

The Supper at Emmaus

Circa 1618

Metropolitan Museum Art. New York

Figure 3
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Velázquez.

The Water Seller of Sevilla

Circa 1620

Apsley House, London

Figure 4
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Velázquez

The old woman frying eggs

Circa 1618

National Gallery of Scotland

Figure 5
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Velázquez

Las Meninas

Circa 1656

Prado Museum, Madrid

Figure 6
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Murillo

The Young Beggar

Circa 1650

Louvre Museum, París

Figure 7
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Murillo

The adoration of the Shepherds

Circa 1650

Prado Museum, Madrid

Figure 8
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Murillo

The Inmaculate Conception of Los Venerables

Circa 1650

Prado Museum, Madrid

Figure 9
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Murillo

The Christ Child an the infant Jhon the Baptist whit a shell

Circa 1670-1675

Prado Museum, Madrid

Bibliography
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Gash,John.”Counter-Reformation Countenances”. An Irish Quaterly Review 104,

no.416(Winter 2015):373-387.

LaHuerta, Juan José.The Crucifixions of Velázquez and Zurbarán.Antropology and

Aesthetics 65/66, no.65/66(2014/2015):259-274.

Mancini,Simone.Caravaggio´s Tecnique: The Taking of Christ,Advanced Research into

Practice and Process.An Irish Quaterly Review 104,no.416(Winter 2015/2016):400-

409.

Mctighe Sheila.The End of Caravaggio.The Art Bulletin 88, no.3(Sep.2006):583-589.

Prendeville,Brenda.A Heartfelt Gesture:Separation and Feeling:Darkness and Illusion in

Caravaggio.Oxford Art Journal 36,no.2( 2013):185-206.

Racco,Tiffany.” Darkness in a Positive Light: Negative Theology in Caravaggio´s

Conversion of Saint Paul”.Artibus et Historiae 37,no.73( 2016):285-298.

Salomon,Xavier.Murillo:Madrid,Sevilla and London.The Burlington Magazine 155,no.1323

(2013):425-427.

Sanabrias,Sofia.The Influence of Murillo in New Spain.The Burlington Magazine

147,no.1226(May 2005):327-330.

Wicks,Robert.Using Masterpieces as Philosophical Examples: The Case of Las Meninas.The

Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 68,no.3(Summer 2010):259-272