Murillo: The Self-Portraits

This beautiful publication accompanies an exhibition that brings together the only two known self-portraits by Bartolomé Estebán Murillo (1617–1682), one of the finest painters of the Spanish Golden Age. Painted almost twenty years apart, these two remarkable paintings are often overshadowed by Murillo’s more famous religious paintings and genre scenes. This book investigates the two self-portraits side by side, highlighting similarities and differences. While the earlier portrait reflects Murillo’s admiration of antiquity and imitation of classical models, the later one shows a confident, mature artist who was at that time the leading painter in Seville. In addition, the book discusses recent technical analysis, offering a better understanding of how these self-portraits were painted, and provides a rare opportunity to compare how one of the most celebrated and influential European painters chose to represent himself at different stages of his exceptional career.