The Angels' Kitchen

The Angels' Kitchen is a 1646 oil on canvas painting by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, originally produced for a small Franciscan monastery in the artist's native Seville. From at least 1810 it was in the Alcázar of Seville, before being looted by Marshal Soult, arriving in his collection in Paris in 1813. The French state bought it in the sale of Soult's collection in 1858 and it has hung in the Louvre, in Paris, ever since.
Michel Butor included it in his list of 105 decisive masterpieces of Western art.

History

It originally formed part of a set of twelve works, the others being:

The Ecstacy of Saint Francis and Saint Diego Feeding Beggars
Brother Julian of Alcala and The Soul of Philip II
The Death of Saint Clare
Immaculate Conception and Saint Diego
Saint Didacus of Alcalá and the Bishop of Pamplona
Saint Salvador of Horta or Plague
The Blessed Giles Before Pope Gregory IX
Two Franciscan Monks
Brother Juniper and the Poor Man

It shows an otherwise unknown scene from the history of the Franciscan order, possibly Brother Francisco Perez from Alcalá de Guadaíra, who was an assistant in the kitchen of the monastery of San Francisco el Grande. According to legend, he was such an ardent devotee that he once forgot his duties and fell asleep. When he woke up he found his duties miraculously fulfilled.