Adam Jasienski, Marilynn Thoma Post-Doctoral Fellow and associate professor of art history, Southern Methodist University, Dallas
This lecture will examine the various, often complex, and even contradictory ways in which portraiture and religious art overlapped in the career of Bartolomé Esteban Murillo. The painter was an astute observer and recorder of the world around him, as well as a deeply imaginative creator who put his powers in the service of spirituality. His involvement in promoting the cult of the medieval saint Ferdinand III challenged him to combine both these skills. Indeed, Murillo successfully crafted an imagined portrait—and a cult image—of someone whose appearance was not known.
