Bartolomé Esteban Murillo painted this self-portrait in the early 1650s, when he was in his mid-thirties and the father of five children. Notably, he lacks any attributes that identify him as a painter. Like many artists seeking social recognition of their status and profession, Murillo portrayed himself as a gentleman—here wearing the stiff white collar known as a golilla and, over his white shirt, the fashionable black outfit typical of upper-class Spaniards.
Technical analysis reveals that Murillo decided to surround the portrait with a stone frame after he had started painting. It is difficult to say what the artist meant by encircling his image with a stone frame chipped and battered by time, on top of another slab. Unique in its concept, this stone frame could perhaps allude to Murillo’s fame, enduring with the passing of time, like ancient stonework.
In 1709, the painting belonged to Murillo’s one surviving son, and it was probably around that time that the red inscription identifying the painter was added, curiously with the wrong birth date—1618 instead of 1617.
Self-Portrait
Painted when he was in his mid-thirties, Murillo’s first self-portrait shows him as an upper-class Spaniard, sporting an elegant black outfit with a golilla (a stiff white collar, typical of Spanish fashion). It was probably a private work, painted for his own family. The image of the artist is set in a fictive stone block, chipped and battered by time, that rests on a stone ledge in a realistic manner. The Latin inscription at the bottom of the canvas, describing Murillo as a famous painter and providing biographical information—including the wrong birthdate of 1618—was added to the painting after his death.
