This monument, inaugurated on June 25, 1871 by King Amadeo of Savoy, is a replica of the one made in 1859 by the Madrid sculptor Sabino de Medina in Seville, the hometown of the painter Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, located in the square in front of the Museum of Fine Arts. Its creation originated from an offer by Medina himself to the Madrid City Council on April 13, 1861, in order to take advantage of the mould of the Seville statue, which at the time was being cast in bronze in Paris at the Eck and Durand workshops. Once the proposal was accepted by the Madrid council, it requested authorisation from the owner of the original monument, the Society of Emulation and Public Works of Seville, which granted it on the condition that such circumstance would be stated on its pedestal, which was not done. On May 15, 1863, it was received by the Prado Museum and placed in the lobby of its southern façade.

The pedestal was initially commissioned to the municipal architect Juan José Sánchez Pescador, then to the sculptor Medina himself, although it was rejected due to its high cost. It was finally commissioned to the architect Agustín F. Peró, whose design was executed by his colleague José Lois e Ibarra free of charge, on the sole condition of his being able to engrave on it, as a tribute, the name of his father Jaime Lois, who was also an architect.