LUIS DE MORALES  "THE DIVINE"

THE DIVINE

Luis de Morales´s statue, made in bronze by Cabino Amaya thanks to public suscriptions, was erected in 1925. An image of his masterpiece The Piety , which is housed on the inside of the Cathedral , can be seen on its front base.

Although his date and place of birth is unknown, this outstanding figure of the painting world in our city is believed to have been born in Badajoz in 1509.

While it is true that his work reveals the influence of Italian and Flemish paintings, his artistic training process also remains unknown and the learning process he went through cannot be determined exactly either.

In any case, Luis de Morales, called The Divine, was a renowned painter who ran an artistic workshop in the city of Badajoz in 1539. It is known that in 1546 he painted The Virgin with the Little Bird for The Hospital de la Concepción , where he was working at the time.

Morales was a mannerist painter who was able to perfectly express the spirituality at his time. Due to the fact that his paintings were greatly apreciated, he went on to develop his artistic activities in Extremadura as well as in Castile, Andalucia and also in Portugal.

There is no exact evidence of it, but he is thought to have died in 1586, being buried in the former Hospital de la Piedad, which was located opposite the Episcopal Palace in Badajoz.

Although his work was highly praised in his time, it was widly critized over the following centuries and is being vindicated at present time.