rtrait is not known to exist;
but several of Murillo's madonnas which resemble each other are so
evidently portraits, that the belief is these idealized faces were drawn
from the countenance of the wife of the master.

His home now became famous for its hospitable reunions, and his social
position, added to his artistic merits, procured for him orders beyond his
utmost ability to fill. One after another in quick succession, large,
grand works were sent out from his studio to be the pride of churches and
convents. At this time his pictures were noted for a portrait-like
naturalness in their faces, perhaps lacking in idealism, but withal pure
and pleasing; the drapery graceful and well arranged, the lights skilfully
disposed, the tints harmonious, and the contours soft. His flesh tints
were heightened by dark gray backgrounds, so amazingly true that an
admirer has said they were painted in blood and milk. The _calido_, or
warm manner, was preserved for eight or ten years. In this style were
painted an "Immaculate Conception," for the Franciscan Convent; "The
Nativity of the Virgin," for the high altar of the Seville Cathedral; a
"St. Anthony of Padua" for the same church, and very many others equally
famous. In 1874 the St. Anthony was stolen from the cathedral, and for
some time was unheard of, until two men offered to sell it for two hundred
and fifty dollars to Mr. Schaus, the picture dealer in New York. He
purchased the work and turned it over to the Spanish Consul, who
immediately returned it to the Seville Cathedral, to the great joy of the
Sevillians. In 1658 Murillo turned his attention to the founding of an
Academy of Art, and, though he met with many obstacles, the institution
was finally opened for instruction in 1660, and Murillo was its first
president. At this time he was taking on his latest manner, called the
_vaporoso_, or vapory, which was first used in some of his pictures
executed for the Church of Sta. Maria la Blanca. In this manner the rigid
outlines of his first style is gone; there is a feathery lightness of
touch as if the brush had swept the canvas smoothly and with unbroken
evenness: this softness is enhanced by frequent contrasts with harder and
heavier groups in the same picture.

But the highest point in the art was reached by Murillo in the eleven
pictures which he painted in the Hospital de la Caridad. Six of these are
now in their original places; five were stolen by Soult and carried to