From the film-maker:

I found this painting unusual for what I felt was a peculiarly modern interpretation of the roles of the self and the other - something which is not readily apparent in other works in the gallery.

Compared to Murillo’s images of religious figures and of contemporaneous street life, Self Portrait shows an interesting reflexivity regarding the place of painter, model and audience within the finished product. An emotionally distant urge to leave imprints on an uncontrollable and transitory world is also evident in the painting and this informed the subject matter of my film. I think Murillo invites the audience not only to observe ‘art’, but to also observe themselves and their response to it. And this is important in any visual discipline: if we have no recognisable stake in our interpretation of an image, of what value is it - except as a vacuous reminder of all that is not ours?

Daniel Chaytor

A piece inspired by Self Portrait, Bartolemé Murillo, probably 1670-3