Harringay House painting: Murillo, Virgin and Child in Glory

Comment by Hugh on November 22, 2017 at 23:54

Some history to this painting courtesy of the Visual Arts Data Service:

Commissioned by Archbishop of Seville,  Archbishop don Ambrosio Ignacio Spínola y Guzmán for the lower oratory of the Archiepiscopal Palace, Seville, 1673, at a price of 1000 ducats. The altarpiece shows a heavenly vision of the Mother of God and her divine child, in which the figures appear both human and otherworldly.

Murillo was the leading artist in Seville in the Golden Age of Spanish painting, and his works were held in the highest esteem by 19th-century collectors.

Before 1780 a section comprising the upper half of the Virgin and the whole figure of the Child was cut out and replaced by a copy. The part which had been cut out later came into the possession of Edward Gray of Harringay House, Middlesex, from whom it was bought by Lord Overstone in 1838. The rest of the altarpiece, apparently incorporating the copied upper central part, was removed from Seville by Marshal Soult during his occupation of Seville, 1810-1812, and taken to Paris. In 1862 it was bought by Lord Overstone from the Duc de Dalmatie and the Marquis de Morny, Soult's heirs, and the two original parts of the canvas, now both owned by Overstone, were put back together by the restorer Raffaele Pinti at the National Gallery, London.

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