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." "

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. 

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.