Thomas of Villanova heals the sick

Thomas of Villanova Heals the Sick of around 1675 at the Bavarian State Painting Collections depicts the Augustinian bishop who was canonized in 1658, just seventeen years before this canvas was painted — making him one of the newest saints in Murillo's devotional repertoire and one for whom his imagery could establish the definitive visual type for a tradition still being formed. Thomas of Villanueva's fame rested on his legendary charity: he gave away his clothing, furniture, and personal possessions to the poor of Valencia, earning the title 'Almsgiver of the Poor.' Murillo painted him multiple times, drawn by the subject's combination of active charitable work and inner spiritual life — the bishop-saint who served both God and the destitute simultaneously. Seville, devastated by repeated plague outbreaks and economic decline throughout the mid-seventeenth century, had a population deeply familiar with the suffering Thomas addressed, and images of charitable saints carried immediate social resonance alongside their devotional function. Munich's Alte Pinakothek holds this within a comprehensive survey of Spanish Baroque religious painting.

The healing scene is rendered with Murillo's characteristically warm, soft modeling, the vaporous atmosphere and gentle light enveloping the figures in an aura of compassionate devotion.