A Sagrada Família

Murillo spent his whole life in Seville, and by the time he painted this, around 1670, he was the city's leading artist. Seville had been the golden port of the Spanish empire, but plague in 1649 had killed a large part of its people and trade was slipping away to rival harbours. Murillo's answer, again and again, was a warm and approachable holiness. Here the Virgin, the child and Joseph are gathered close in an ordinary tender moment, lit with the soft golden light he was known for, on a canvas large enough to fill an altar. Nothing about it is grand or distant. Joseph leans in at the child's side.