Bartolomé-Esteban Murillo (Spanish, 1617–1682)
Saint Thomas of Villanueva Giving Alms to the Poor, 1665–70
Oil on canvas
The Norton Simon Foundation, F.1972.47.2.P

In this image of Saint Thomas of Villanueva (1488–1555) distributing alms, or charitable gifts, Bartolomé-Esteban Murillo represents the physical effects of poverty. These are evident, for instance, in the lean body of the seated man and in the boy’s cradling of his stomach—perhaps a humble gesture of gratitude or an indication of his hunger. Blending the realistic with the visionary, Murillo contrasts this family with the allegorical figure of Charity, depicted as a woman breastfeeding three babies. The ease with which she feeds the children from her own body, which parallels Thomas’s selfless generosity, throws the needs of the mother and children below into greater relief.

When Murillo created this painting as part of an altarpiece for the Monastery of St. Augustin, the once-prosperous Seville was struggling (Figure 1). In the early 17th century, the city was a significant Spanish port receiving goods from the colonized Americas and profiting from transatlantic trafficking of enslaved people. This income literally dried up when the city’s primary waterway, the Guadalquivir River, became too silted to navigate. In the 1640s, 1650s and 1660s, Seville was struck with a succession of plague outbreaks, crop shortages and revolts as the city’s wealth gap increased.

In his nonreligious paintings, Murillo tended toward positive, if fanciful, takes on these difficult subjects. He often depicted Seville’s poorer citizens enjoying the perceived “freedom” of street life. Murillo created images of children eating delicious-looking food, as in Grape and Melon Eaters, in which two boys lock eyes while greedily inhaling bunches of grapes and a juicy melon (Figure 2). In his painting of Saint Thomas, food is notably absent, though Murillo softens the brutal reality of poverty through his characteristic warm tones and cloudlike brushstrokes, emphasizing the uplifting power of giving.