The Prodigal Son among the Pigs

In the 1660s Murillo told the parable of the prodigal son across six large canvases, a set painted for a private house rather than a church, and the only narrative series of his to survive complete. Those six are in Dublin now, at the National Gallery of Ireland. This is the same scene at 27 by 34 centimetres, about a quarter as wide, the ruined son among the pigs he has hired himself out to feed.

The Prado holds four of these small versions, painted fast and left looking sketched rather than finished, and what they were for has been argued over. Preparatory studies for the big pictures, samples to show a client, or ricordi, the records a painter kept of work he was pleased with. X-rays have narrowed it. The Dublin canvas has a large ruined building in its background that Murillo later covered with paint. Nothing of that building lies under the surface of the small one, so he was already working without it, which puts these alongside the large versions or after them and supports the keepsake reading. The Prado's group stops at four scenes. The expulsion from the brothel and the homecoming, the episode most painters chose, are either lost or were never made.