The Pie Eaters

One of Murillo’s favourite themes among secular subjects is the depiction of boys “of the baskets”, as those encountered in Cervantes’s novel Rinconete y Cortadillo (1613) are called. Such little boys ran errands throughout the city of Seville, selling food or simple carrying it for shoppers from the market to their home. These are poor boys, as indicated by the clothing. As is usual in Murillo’s paintings of children, they are poor but not sad, they are smiling.