Guardian Angel or Custodian Angel

Hermanos Cabral y Aguado Bejarano
Date: 1870-1879
Dimensions: 189.5 x 125 cm
Materials: Oil on canvas
This canvas is a good-quality pictorial copy of the work Ángel de la Guarda by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, preserved in Seville Cathedral, and CAEM technicians consider that it should be attributed to the Cabral and Aguado Bejarano brothers. The patriarch of the family saga, Antonio Cabral Bejarano (1785–1861), was one of the most renowned artists of Seville painting in the first half of the 19th century, director of the School of Fine Arts and of the Museum of Paintings of Seville. His sons Francisco, José María, Manuel, Juan Antonio and Rafael, notable romantic and genre painters, continued the family tradition and kept their paternal surnames. It should be noted that Juan Cabral y Aguado Bejarano specialized in copies of works by Murillo; his brothers Manuel and Francisco also made copies of different canvases by the Sevillian painter. Furthermore, it is known that Juan requested permission from the Chapter of Seville Cathedral to make copies of Murillo’s works, including Ángel de la Guarda.