St. Justa and St. Rufina

In 1665-66 Murillo created a large series of works including the altarpiece The Portiuncula Indulgence (Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Köln) for the chapel of a Capuchin order in Seville. This small work is an oil sketch for one of these works, St. Justa and St. Rufina now in the Seville Museum. Except for several discrepancies in the pottery at the feet of the saints, this painting presents almost exactly the same composition as that of the completed work. The work depicts the two patron saints of Seville, holding the hemp leaves symbolic of their martyrdom in their hands, and supporting a miniature of the city's symbol, the Giralda Tower. The completed work is from the artist's most accomplished period in the 1660s, showing his mature figural style amidst a light-filled sky. While this work is simply a study and hence we cannot expect to find Murillo's typical elements here, instead it provides us with a direct reflection of the artist's ideas and aesthetic sentiments. A sketch of almost exactly the same composition is now in the collection of the Bonnat Museum in Bayonne in southern France. St. Justa and St. Rufina were sisters and Christians famous for their pottery who lived in Seville during the Roman Empire. When they refused the order for pagan ritual implements from a Roman priest, they were martyred in Seville sometime around the year 286. Pottery became the symbol for the two saints, and the Giralda Tower is frequently shown in works depicting the two sisters. This inclusion of the tower is based on the tradition that the sisters descended from heaven in 1504 and embraced the tower to protect it from a great earthquake. (Source: Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2009, cat. no.45)