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 Cean 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.

In a diaphanous atmosphere gilded with an invisible clearness as of
Paradise, the winged heads and bodies of little angels are moving: the
former gracefully grouped, the latter boldly and skilfully disposed. The
celestial infants have followed all the way to the earth the rays of
celestial light in its elusive gradations of colour under its
imperceptible glazing. In the centre, in the act of ascent, the Virgin
rises in ecstasy. One corner of a cloud, the crescent moon, and a
masterly group of little angels, naked and enraptured, bear the
Immaculate aloft. Gracefully and statuesquely posed, and broadly draped
in a white robe with sober folds enriched by an ample scarf of light
blue, she modestly hides her feet un