# A Girl and her Duenna [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [MURILLO, Bartolomé Esteban]() - Date: 1651-1700 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 106 x 127 cm ## Commentary According to tradition, the models were from the province of Galicia and attained a certain notoriety as courtesans in Seville. A man of the people, Murillo obviously intended this picture to both surprise and amuse the spectator. Yet the casualness of this painting masks a sure sense design - note how the girls' heads form a diagonal that bisects the canvas - and great technical skill. Although he had begun by selling his pictures at fairs, Murillo became conversant with and influenced by the works of Velázquez, Titian and Rubens, presumably as a result of studying the royal collections in Madrid. But Murillo never lost his popular appeal or his gift for the telling expression, such as the smile of the uppermost woman, indicated only by her eyes and cheeks. ## Related artworks - [Adoration of the Magi]() - [Adoration of the Shepherds]() - [Adoration of the Shepherds]() - [Adoration of the Shepherds]() - [Angels' Kitchen]() - [Annunciation]() - [Baking of Flat Cakes]() - [Baptism of Christ]() - [Birth of the Virgin]() - [Boy with a Dog]() - [Boys Eating Grapes and Melon]() - [Christ the Good Shepherd]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()