left but little property, though he received large prices for his works.
MURILLO'S STYLE.
Few painters have a juster claim to originality of
style than Murillo, and his works show an incontestible
proof of the perfection to which the Spanish
school attained, and the real character of its artists;
for he was never out of his native country, and
could have borrowed little from foreign artists; and
this originality places him in the first rank among
the painters of every school. All his works are distinguished
by a close and lively imitation of nature.
His pictures of the Virgin, Saints, Magdalens, and
even of the Saviour, are stamped with a characteristic
expression of the eye, and have a national peculiarity
of countenance and habiliments, which are
very remarkable. There is little of the academy
discernible in his design or his composition. It is a
chaste and faithful representation of what he saw
or conceived; truth and simplicity are never lost
sight of; his coloring is clear, tender, and harmonious,
and though it possesses the truth of Titian, and
the sweetness of Vandyck, it has nothing of the appearance
of imitation. There is little of the ideal
in his forms or heads, and though he frequently
adopts a beautiful expression, there is usually a
portrait-like simplicity in his countenances. In
short, his pictures are said to hold a middle rank
between the unpolished naturalness of the Flemish,
