Chloë Holt RCA FRSA - “Eternal – After Murillo’s Iconography of the Porciúncula”

A luminous and emotionally charged work inspired by the devotional drama and radiant chiaroscuro of the great Spanish Baroque master Bartolomé Esteban Murillo. In Eternal, vibrant cerise peonies unfold against deep passages of shadow, while the silhouettes of date palms cast blue-grey forms across whitewashed walls, evoking the heat, stillness and spiritual atmosphere of southern Spain.

The painting draws particular inspiration from Murillo’s Iconography of the Porciúncula, centred upon the miraculous vision of flowers descending from the heavens. Holt reinterprets this sense of celestial abundance through the language of the garden, where blooms appear suspended between presence and dissolution, illuminated as though emerging from within the surface itself.

Executed in richly layered oil and mixed media on Arches Oil Paper, the work balances gestural freedom with areas of luminous restraint. The shifting interplay of shadow, light and saturated colour creates a composition that feels both contemporary and devotional, echoing the emotional intensity of Spanish Baroque painting while remaining rooted in Holt’s own visual language.

Original painting by Chloë Holt RCA FRSA. One of the youngest artists elected to the Royal Cambrian Academy, Holt was awarded the 2012 Kyffin Williams Drawing Prize and, in 2010, received the International Lorenzo il Magnifico Prize at the Florence Biennale for works on paper.

Oil and mixed media on Arches Oil Paper.
130 w x 80 h cm unframed
145 w x 95 h cm framed