Children Eating Grapes and Melon

Oil on canvas, painted by Murillo around 1645. It now hangs in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich.

Two boys eat fruit in some corner or other: one holds the grapes above his head to drop them into his mouth, the other keeps a firm grip on his slice of melon. Murillo painted several scenes like this, with the poor children of Seville in the leading roles, and at the time that was very odd indeed. Street children went in the corners as filler, not in the middle of the canvas and lit as solemnly as a saint.