Murillo. The Joy Of The Baroque Painting

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo spent his career resisting the prevailing mood of Spanish Baroque painting. While Ribera, Zurbarán, and Velázquez worked in shadow and severity, Murillo turned toward warmth, compassion, and an openly human tenderness that found a deep audience in 17th-century Seville and far beyond.

Produced to mark the 400th anniversary of his birth, this documentary sets out to reclaim his place in art history and challenge the dismissals that accumulated over the 20th century, when critics reduced him to a painter fit only for devout old men in dim Sevillian churches. That verdict, the film argues, says more about shifting cultural fashion than it does about the work.

The journey moves through the streets and churches of Seville, then outward to the Prado, the National Gallery in London, and the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, tracing how his paintings travelled and how their reputation rose and fell. Leading Murillo specialists and gallery directors offer their assessments, while contemporary artists including photographer Isabel Muñoz and writer Espido Freire reflect on what his work still communicates today.

A portrait of an artist long overdue a serious second look.