Hospital de Caridad

Behind Teatro Maestranza is this residencia de ancianos (nursing home), which is still fulfilling its original charitable purpose. It was built as a hospital for the poor by Miguel de Mañara, a curious 17th-century sevillano often likened to Don Juan. After a scandalous youth of seduction and deceit he reformed completely when he saw a vision of his own death and dedicated himself to a life of charity and religion. He had a good eye for art and as a result of this, the hospital chapel has a collection of masterpieces commissioned by Mañara expressly to remind his brotherhood of the charitable virtues and the ultimate futility of worldly wealth and pride.

Two astonishing paintings stand above and opposite the entrance. They are the two finest, and most disturbing, works of the Sevillan painter Juan de Valdés Leal. The first one you’ll see depicts a leering skeletal Death with a scythe, putting out a candle with one hand while trampling over objects that represent worldly wealth, power, and knowledge. The inscription In Ictu Oculi translates as in the blink of an eye. Opposite this is an even more challenging painting entitled Finis Gloriae Mundi (the end of worldly glory). It depicts a crypt in which a dead bishop and knight are being eaten by worms. Above, a balance is borne by the hand of Christ. On one side are symbols of the seven deadly sins, on the other side symbols of a holy love between God and Christ. “Neither more nor less” read the words on the scales. Mañara commissioned these works in detail, and the face of the knight is thought to be his own.

After these grim warnings, the paintings of Murillo demonstrate the charitable life Mañara wanted his brotherhood to lead. Although four are missing (they were stolen by Napoleon’s pillaging general, Soult, and are now scattered around the world; they include the impressive Return of the Prodigal Son in Washington), those that remain are exceptional examples of this artist’s work. St John of God carries a sick man, while St Isabelle of Hungary cares for the afflicted. A Moses horned with light brings forth water from the rock, while Jesus feeds the multitude with loaves and fishes. In a retablo by Bernardo Simón de Pineda next to the pulpit is another Murillo painting, a depiction of the Annunciation. The sculptor Pedro Roldán is responsible for the figures in the intense retablo of Santo Cristo de la Caridad, with a Christ dripping blood flanked by cherubs. The main retablo, a Churrigueresque riot of cherubs and salomónica columns, is again the work of Roldán and Pineda; the former responsible for the emotive central tableau of the burial of Christ.

Juan de Valdés Leal painted the ceiling, of which the cupola is particularly fine, while Murillo also painted the small panels of the infants Jesus and John the Baptist above two other retablos....read more