Saint Augustine in Ecstasy
Date1665-75
Maker
Bartolomé Estebán Murillo
Spanish, Seville, 1617 - 1682
Label TextDirect experience of God is a common theme in 17th-century Spanish art. Here Saint Augustine, one of the Fathers of the Church, has put aside his bishop’s crozier and miter to kneel in prayer. Books, including his most famous work, The City of God, are strewn on the floor. His fervent contemplation is rewarded by the vision of a flaming heart, symbolic of religious fervor and God’s love, surrounded by a Latin inscription which translates “My heart is restless until it comes to you.” Murillo intimates intelligence, self-doubt, and humility in his portrait-like rendering of the saint. The design of the painting embodies Augustine’s description of his own earlier religious conversion as a passage from darkness into light.
Object number2008.51
ProvenanceSacristy of the Convent of Saint Augustine, Seville; Marshal Jean de Dieu Soult (d. 1851), Paris; George Tomline (d. 1889), Orwell Park, Ipswich, Suffolk; Ernest George Pretyman, Esq. (d. 1931), Orwell Park, Ipswich; [Christie's, London, 28 July 1933, lot 23]; with [Schaeffer Galleries, New York until late 1930s]; purchased by Bishop Thomas E. Molloy (d. 1956), Brooklyn, New York; bequeathed to Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, 1956; [Christie's, New York, May 25, 2005]; Richard and Betty Hedreen, Seattle, Washington; gift to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington October 2008 (promised gift in March 2007)
Exhibition HistoryLondon, England, The Royal Academy, 1910, no. 42.
Eindhoven, The Netherlands, 1936-7, no. 98.
Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, permanent collection galleries, May 2007 - January 2013.
Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, European Masters: The Treasures of Seattle, February 14, 2013 - May 19, 2013.
Published Referencesde Zuniga, D.O. Annales de Sevilla. Madrid, 1677, p. 722.
Ponz, A. Viaje de España. Madrid, 1772-94, vol. 9, p. 137.
Céan Bermúdez, J.A. Diccionario histórico de los más ilustres profesores de las Bellas Artes en España. Madrid, 1800, p. 60.
Pérez, R. Madrid en 1808. Madrid, 1808, p. 117, no. 707.
Quilliet, F. 'Collection des Tableaux de S.A.S. Le Prince de la Paix Generalissime Grand Admiral', mss. 1 January 1808, Archivo Histórico Nacional, Madrid, Estado, L. 3.227, no. 1, GG, f. 1, 'Murillo St. Agustin magnifique'.
Buchanan, W. Memoirs of painting: with a chronological history of the importation of pictures by the great masters into England since the French Revolution. London, 1824, 1, p. 350, no. 8 of Appendix C.
Waagen, G.F. Treasures of Art in Great Britain. London, 1854, 3, p. 441.
Tubino, F. M. Murillo, su época, su vida, sus cuadros. Seville, 1864, p. 200.
Scott, W.B. Murillo and the Spanish School of Painting. London, 1873, p. 105.
Curtis, C.B. Velázquez and Murillo. London, 1883, p. 218, no. 258.
Pérez de Guzmán, J. 'Inventario de Godoy hecho por Quilliet, 1808', España Moderna, 1906, p. 117.
Mayer, A.L. Two Unknown Paintings by Murillo. Apollo, 2, October 1925, p. 222.
Perera, A. "Carlos IV, 'Mecenas' y coleccionista de obras de arte." Arte en España, 22, 1958, p. 25.
Catalogo (Museo del Prado). Madrid, 1972, p. 451, no. 980.
Pérez Delgado, R.. Bartolomé Esteban Murillo. Madrid, 1972, p. 192.
Angulo Iñiguez, D. Murillo. Madrid, 1981, 2, pp. 230-1, no. 273, fig. 343.
Wagner, I.-J. R. "Manuel Godoy, patrón de las artes y coleccionista," Ph.D. diss., Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 1983, 2, pp. 288-91, no. 378, fig. 83.
Ishikawa, Chiyo, et al. A Community of Collectors: 75th Anniversary Gifts to the Seattle Art Museum. Seattle, 2007, pp. 178-179, illus.
Ishikawa, Chiyo. "A Restless Heart." In A Community of Collectors. Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 2008, p. 179, illus. 151.Credit LineGift of Richard and Elizabeth Hedreen, in honor of the 75th Anniversary of the Seattle Art Museum
Dimensions76 1/2 x 55 in. (194.3 x 139.7 cm)
MediumOil on canvas
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