This book accompanies the first-ever exhibition of paintings by the 17th-century Spanish artist Bartolome Esteban Murillo in American collections. It takes a comprehensive view of the artist's work, including portraits, history paintings, religious images and genre paintings. Some of the works in the show are well known, for example Two Women at a Window in the National Gallery (Washington, D.C.)--which will be on the front of the jacket - and the Madonna and Child in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Others have rarely been seen before. 

All the paintings have been restored and photographed for this exhibition. The essays address not only the artist's stylistic development, but also other interesting topics such as the artist's work on unusual supports (stone, copper), his drawings, and new discoveries about painting practices in 17th-century Spain.