The Feeding of the Five Thousand

Murillo's Feeding of the Five Thousand (Hermandad de la Caridad, Seville) represents one of the six Acts of Mercy:  feeding the hungry.  Crammed full of figures this painting is an antidote to Valdes Leal's Vanitas (see earlier post).

Christ healing the Paralytic

Murillo's Christ Healing the Paralytic (Hermandad de la Caridad, Seville) represents one of the six Acts of Mercy.  This picture shows a cause particularly relevant to the Caridad - the visitation of the sick.  The illustration is taken from John's gospel.

"Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches.  In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water.  For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.  And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years.  When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?  The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.  Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk."

The Return of the Prodigal Son

Murillo's Return of the Prodigal Son (Hermandad de la Caridad, Seville) depicts one of the six Acts of Mercy.  Although usually associated with the key message of forgiveness, here it represents Clothing the Naked.

The Liberation of St Peter

Murillo's Liberation of St Peter (Hermandad de la Caridad, Seville) is from his series depicting the six Acts of Mercy.  This one represents the ministering to prisoners.  St Peter wears a blue tunic with a yellow mantle and sits in the middle of the prison floor, looking at an angel who takes his arm and points to a way of escape.  Architecture and sleeping guards appear in the background.

"Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. "Quick, get up!" he said, and the chains fell off Peter's wrists.  Then the angel said to him, "Put on your clothes and sandals." And Peter did so. "Wrap your cloak around you and follow me," the angel told him.  Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision.  They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him. Then Peter came to himself and said, "Now I know without a doubt that the Lord sent his angel and rescued me from Herod's clutches and from everything the Jewish people were anticipating." "

Abraham and the Three Angels

Murillo's Abraham and the Three Angels at the Hermandad de la Caridad, Seville, represents one of the six Acts of Mercy: the taking in of strangers. Three angels advance from the left, dressed as pilgrims they hold staves. Abraham, in a turban, kneels before them amd indicates with his handshis own houseon the right, which he invites themto enter. It's relevant that this painting would be one of the first Acts of Mercy to be seen. It is a sign of welcome to newcomers to the church, an indication of the benevolence of the Brothers.

Who could join the Caridad?

Membership to the Caridad (see earlier post) was generally restricted to those in the upper echelons of society.  It took Murillo five years before he was accepted as a member, and even then it was specifically on the condition that he carried out commissions for paintings in the Church of San Jorge Seville.  Although painters were of a low social status, on a par with carpenters, Murillo was Seville's leading artist at that time, which gave him greater social mobility.  His calm, warm style with deep colours was a complete contrast to Leal's dour warnings that greeted entrants to the Hermandad de la Caridad.  His contribution was his paintings of the six Acts of Mercy, each representing a specific charitable act, which the Brothers of the Caridad would be expected to do.

The paintings are as follows:  Abraham and the Three Angels (welcoming strangers), The Liberation of St Peter (ministering to prisoners), Return of the Prodigal Son (clothing the naked), Christ healing the paralytic (visitation of the sick), Moses sweetening the waters of Marah (quenching the thirsty) and The feeding of the Five Thousand (feeding the Hungry).

The background to the Mercy painting relating to quenching the thirsty is as follows:

"When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.) So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, "What are we to drink?"

"Then Moses cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. 
      There the LORD made a decree and a law for them, and there he tested them. He said, "If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you."

This series is an antidote to  Valdes Leal's to hieroglyphs about death and judgement which would be seen on entry to the Hermandad de la Caridad.  They proclaim the power of Christian virtue and show that by following these examples death need not be so fearsome a threat.  The actions depicted prevent the deaths of the poor and unfortunate, while ensuring the death of the do-gooder himself will not lead to suffering. 

Forget the honours and status of life!

Finis Gloriae Mundi, like Valdes Leal's In Ictu Oculi, shows the uselessness of earthly glory and is based on the oriental legend of "The Three Living and the Three Dead". One of the three dead said to one of the three living "what you are, we were, what we are, you will become".

In this painting Valdes Leal has depicted the three dead. The dank, fetid atmosphere of the tomb is created by the diminishing half light and the sombre colours. The dead bishop is still decked in his costume while his flesh crawls with bugs. Worms devour the rotting flesh of the dead knight and the remains of a king are just visible in the obscurity of the crypt. We can almost hear "the gnawing of termites and worms" in the echoing silence around the bodies. A passage from Miguel Manara's Discurso de la Verdad is particularly applicable to this painting:

"If you remember that you will be covered with earth and stepped on by all, you will easily forget the honours and status of this life. Remember also the vile worms that will eat your body and how ugly and abominable you will be in the grave, and how those eyes that will be reading these words will be eaten by the earth, and how those hands will be devoured and left dry, and how the silks and finery that you have today will be converted into a rotten shroud, your amber into a stench, your beauty and grace into worms, your family and greatness into the greatest loneliness imaginable"

It is uncanny that when Manara's tomb was opened seven months after his death in 1679, his body was discovered in perfect condition, entirely uncorrupted.

A stigmatised hand holds the scales for the judgement of the soul. Animals representing the seven deadly sins fill one pan, while it is balanced by prayer books and penitentials in the other. This illustrates the notion that prayer and repentance off set sin. There are two mottoes inscribed on each balance. Nothing more (ni mas) than sin is needed for damnation; nothing less (ni menos) is needed for salvation than prayer and penance. The pan with the prayer books, scourge and hair shirt contains the bare minimum to balance the seven deadly sins, while something more is needed to tip the scales in favour of salvation. Although modern viewers might think the following from I John would inspire the contents of the opposite pan:

"Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins" it is here Charity that sets the scales in favour of Salvation.

Can Mortality become Immortality?

The title of this picture, translated means 'In the twinkling of an eye' and is derived from Paul's first letter to the Corinthians:

"Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed".

This shows that death can vanish in the twinkling of an eye, and mortality can become immortality - a note of hope therefore, in so doleful a painting. The sombre intent of this picture is enhanced by its colour scheme. The way the light loses intensity as the space goes back indicates the shadowy view of death held by mortals. The skeleton extinguishes the candle of life, intensifying the drama, dominating the picture, just as death conquers all earthly attributes. Emblems of power and wealth are all cast here in the shadow of death which makes them meaningless. Even non-material human achievements become worthless. The scholarly books - the writings of royalty, a prophet and Pliny - are just mere words of no interest to death who leers out of the picture with his shroud and scythe, more powerful than the armoury and rich cloth displayed around the coffin. Consolation may be found in the following from John:

"Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, the Son of Man must also be lifted up. So that everyone who believes can have eternal life in him. God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son so that whoever believes in him may not be lost, but have eternal life. God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world guilty, but to save the world through him. People who believe in God's Son are not judged guilty".

Worldly aims are futile and Death is inevitable!

Miguel Manara, the leader of the Caridad in Seville and the man behind the decoration of the Church of San Jorge, had a naturally morbid streak which was increased by the deaths of his parents, sister and two brothers, all before he was thirty five. It was the death of his beloved wife that finally sealed death as his life's major preoccupation. His Discurso de la Verdad, an essay on truth, discusses at length the themes that are to be found in the two hieroglyphs he comissioned: In Ictu Oculi and Finis Gloria Mundi. Both these paintings and the text warn of the futility of worldly aims and achievements, and the inevitability of death.

It is likely that Valdes Leal was chosen to paint these grim warnings because of his inclination towards detail and realism, and for the startling effects he was capable of. Possibly Manara had seen Leal's Allegory of Vanity (1660) whose theme is the transience of material delights. The figure looks out at the spectator and points to a picture of the Last Judgement. This is the familiar doom-ridden style of Valdes Leal - strange, fascinating and crowded with symbolic artefacts.

The eeriness of this painting is expressed even more effectively in the two vanitas of death and salvation that can still be seen at the Church of San Jorge, which shock us sinners into repentance, preparing us for the frightening reality of death, even more real than the painting effects employed by Leal.

The first sentence of Manara's Discurso de la Verdad tells us that:

"the first truth that must reign in our hearts is: dust and ashes, corruption and worms, the tomb and forgetfulness".

These truths are manifest in Valdes Leal's two Vanitas paintings: In Ictu Oculi and Finis Gloriae Mundi.

In his Regla of 1675, Manara advised that the Brothers attend monthly lectures on The Four Last Things i.e. Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell. In these lectures, which would enforce the power of the two Vanitas in the eyes of the Brothers, the lecturer had to stress how charity was the right path to Heaven, preparing the soul for a favourable judgement. The following recommendation for these lectures was given:

"to ponder the brevity of life, and certain death, and all which it will end; to paint the rigorous danger of death, with the greatest grandeur ending in worms. To comfort us in holy alms and exercises of charity in order to attain good death".

The two pictures illustrate earthly existence as futile and meaningless, and how the soul will be judged according to how its life was led. It is certainly heartening to remember though, the promise of salvation which is described in St Paul's letter to the Ephesians:

"But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.
God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago".

A spectacle of Death in Seville!

If you were to enter the Church of San Jorge, Hermandad de la Caridad in Seville, the spectacle of death would be all around you. Valdes Leal's In Ictu Oculi and Finis Gloriae Mundi emerge from the dimness, with Pedro Roldan's and Murillo's sculpture of the Entombment of Christ directly ahead, on the high altar, surrounded by Bernardo Simon de Pineda's retablo covering the apse wall. It's crowned by the three cardinal virtues: Faith, Hope and Charity, which are echoed throughout the church's decorative scheme. The altar is the culmination of Murillo's Six Acts of Mercy, as well as showing the founding charity of the Caridad: burial of the dead. This sculpture also shows the promised reward of resurrection and salvation. The worshipper passes from life outside the church, through death (in Valdes Leal's pictures) and on to the blessed life beyond (seen in the high altar). Murillo's six paintings of charitable acts, as well as showing the Brotherhood's primary concerns, are the suggested means of obtaining the final goal of salvation. His St John of God and St Elizabeth of Hungary bring these depicted acts of charity down to earth.

But why this concern with death and charity throughout the church?

In late fifteenth century Spain, men hung by gallows were required by law to remaining hanging for a week after death. Their corpses inevitably fell to the ground during this time, where scavenging animals came to eat them. Legend has it that to allay this horrible custom, Pedro Martinez, an honorary canon of Seville Cathedral, built a wall around the gallows and consecrated the ground within as a cemetery. After the deceased had hung for a week, he carried out a proper funeral and burial.

When Martinez himself died, he bequeathed his money for the upkeep of this practice. It wasn't, however, until at least 1565 that the money was received. By then, a hundred and twenty men had joined together as The Caridad, with the mutual intent of burying the dead. This answered an urgent social need, for it was common in Spain in those days to see the dead victims of starvation, exposure and assault lying around, unburied. The Caridad flourished for over twenty years, and in 1578 the Brotherhood rented the Church of San Jorge from Philip II.

A decade later it was declining, and this low period lasted for about sixty years. The church, always prone to flood damage, fell into bad disrepair, and between 1613 and 1640 there were only twenty nine new members - an average of about one new member a year. But, this decline did not bring the good work to an end.

A series of natural disasters resulted in the revival of the Caridad, which was suddenly faced with having to cope with a heightened rate of mortality. In 1649 a plague reached Seville, having ravaged its way from the east coast leaving ghost towns in its path. A subsequent lack of farm workers to tend crops led to a famine in 1651 caused the death by starvation to hundreds. During the painful years between 1650 - 1653, a hundred and eighteen new members joined the Brotherhood which thus became stronger and more active.

The Caridad grew both in size and importance and in 1661 a new Regla for the charity was drawn up. The following year Mighuel Manara, the man behind the decoration of the church, joined the brotherhood. In 1663 he became leader, and his rule endured until his death sixteen years later in 1679. With the installation of Manara as the leader of the Brotherhood, four new charities became affiliated to the existing charitable burials. The aim of these new tasks was to reduce the number of burials. They set up a hospice in a warehouse rented from the Royal Arsenal, to shelter and feed the homeless and hungry. An ambulance service and the visitation of the sick were instituted, and an infirmary was established to care for the aged and terminally ill. Finally, Manara planned to educate the patients in the Christian faith, an aim which is well reflected in the church's decorative scheme. It was this church which was Manara'a priority and, after a few complications, its renovation was complete by July 1670.