I have said that Murillo had three styles, almost three pencils, not like the pencils of gold, of silver, and of iron that the Venetians attributed to the unequal genius of Tintoret, but in sympathy with the subjects he had to treat. The Spaniards have distinguished and qualified these styles as follows: _Frio, calido y vaporoso_, cold, warm, and vaporous.
In the cold style he painted broadly, boldly, and frankly his beggars and his _muchachos_, so true to life and in strong relief, with a certain brutality almost approaching triviality. A very well-known work of this kind is the _Pouilleux_ in the Museum of the Louvre, and a masterpiece in the Pinacothek of Munich, the Grandmother and Infant. He sought these types in some old Moorish dwelling, on the deck of a ship from Tunis or Tripoli anchored in a Spanish harbour, or in among a band of wandering _Gitanos_ on the banks of the Guadalquivir.
In the vaporous manner, which he used in rendering the ecstasies of the saints, he painted (under indescribable transparencies of light and atmospheric shade which is really only extinguished light), _Saint Francis in Ecstasy_, _The Angel Kitchen_ (Miracle of San Diego) running through several scales of tones in a marvellous chord and softening all the outlines "dulcemente perdidos," as Céan Bermudez says.
In his warm style, come his _Annunciations_, _Conceptions_, and all those gentle and graceful Madonnas, sweet and poetic young mothers rather than divine Virgins "whom Jews might kiss and Infidels adore," as Pope says, and which remind us of Correggio's effeminacy, unknown to Murillo, and in which he plays with ease with harmonies, contrasts, and reflections of colour.
_The Immaculate Conception_, in the National Museum of the Louvre, is of this style. Certainly it is not more beautiful than the _Conception_ in Madrid, of such extraordinary brilliance, and of such a virginal expression of innocence, piety, and melancholy; and above all not more beautiful than that of Seville--_The Great Conception_, or the _Pearl of Conceptions_, making the Virgin Mother's face into a beautiful and intense face of an archangel. That had its day of resounding triumph.
Every one knows that Marshal Soult accepted this work in Spain for the pardon of two monks condemned to be hanged as spies. On the 29th of May, 1852, this canvas was sold at auction. Around it the greatest nations were represented with their rival gold, and loud applause accompanied each royal bid. When, for the sum of 615,300 francs, it was knocked down--"To France, gentlemen!" cried the Count de Nieuwerkerke--then broke forth the delirium of a battle won.