"The Vision of St. Anthony of Padua"

An early example of Murillo's so-called "vaporous style" that combined golden tonal color with diffused form, it is possible, as some have argued, that he was inspired by Venetian painting, or works by Herrera the Younger. However, neither would explain what compelled Murillo to pair realism (the furniture and floor are typical of local décor) with the subtle sensitivity of gesture and expression in painting this serenely supernatural image. Contemporary critic Fernando de la Torre Farfán wrote that Murillo painted even the saint's desk "with such art that there are those who testify to having seen a bird labouring to sit on it so as to peck at the white lilies there are in a vase". Today, this reads as hyperbole, but the painting won Murillo a further string of religious commissions and is now acknowledged as a masterpiece of his mature period; as art historian Jonathan Brown wrote, it was Murillo's "first essay in the high baroque".