ENGLISH

Icons from the Golden Age

The Saint Francis in Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon is said to have been discovered in the late 18th century by architect Jean Antoine Morand (1727-1794) at the Convent of the Colinettes on the slopes of the Croix-Rousse hill. According to François Artaud (1767-1838), the museum's first director, "The nuns had it removed because it was a frightening object. Mr Morand found it in the attic. His dog barked at it."

The sisters and the dog must have been struck by the sculptural quality of this figure which seems to emerge from the darkness. To create this striking image, Zurbarán reduced his palette to just a few shades of color and achieved an almost geometric reduction of the volumes, defined by contrasts between light and shadow, while also paying great attention to details.

The painter succeeded in transcribing the vision Pope Nicholas V was said to have had, in 1449, of the intact body of Saint Francis standing upright, the flesh of his face white and pink and with freshly coagulated blood on the stigmata. Zurbarán took inspiration from paintings on this theme by Eugenio Cajés (1575-1534) and Alejandro de Loarte (c. 1590-1626) and sculptures by Gregorio Fernández (1576-1636). He, in turn, provided an example that was copied extensively by sculptors such as Pedro de Mena (1628-1688).

The work was so successful that Zurbarán and his workshop repeated it, as demonstrated by the Saint Francis paintings in Lyon, Barcelona and Boston, brought together here for the first time. Restorations of the Lyon and Barcelona paintings, carried out in 2023 and 2024 in preparation for this exhibition, have revealed previously unknown elements that shed new light on the genesis and significance of these three works.

Citation

"The face appears to be modelled, hollowed out in ash, and the mouth agape, livid, under eyes in ecstasy, white, as if gouged out. One wonders how this corpse, with nothing left but its bones, can stand upright, and one is frightened to think of the exorbitant macerations, the appalling penances that have exhausted this body and ploughed the painful, rapt features of this face (...) this is the art of a torturer, the delirium tremens of divine intoxication here below; yes, but what an accent of adoration, what a cry of love, choked by anguish, springs from this canvas!”

Joris Karl Huysmans, in "La Nativité de Roger van der Weyden", 1898

Labels

Francisco de Zurbarán
Saint Francis of Assisi According to Pope Nicholas V’s Vision
Ca. 1635-1640
Oil on canvas
Barcelona, Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya

Francisco de Zurbarán
Saint Francis
Ca. 1640-1645
Oil on canvas
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts
Herbert James Pratt Fund. Inv. 38.1617
This is the same formula used by Zurbarán in his Saint Francis paintings in Lyon, Barcelona and Boston. The saint appears as Pope Nicholas V is said to have discovered him in 1449 in the crypt of the Basilica of San Francesco in Assisi: standing in front of a niche, in a state of ecstasy, his flesh pink and his stigmata* with fresh blood, as if he were alive. These different copies are the direct result of the success this formula had with both monastic institutions and private individuals.
* Miraculous marks on the body resembling the five wounds of the crucified Christ (on the feet, hands and side)

Francisco de Zurbarán
Saint Francis of Assisi
1636
Oil on canvas
Lyon, Musée des Beaux-Arts
In the Saint Francis paintings of Lyon, Barcelona and Boston, Zurbarán addresses the discovery of the intact body of Saint Francis in 1449 by Pope Nicholas V while ignoring the narrative context: the person contemplating the painting takes the position of the Pope and his retinue and almost seems to be holding the torch illuminating the miraculous apparition of the saint in ecstasy, as if he were still alive. The recent restoration of the painting in Lyon has made it possible to rediscover the artist's signature which can be seen on the floor, as well as the work's date of execution. Previously invisible elements of the composition have also been brought to light: the left-hand part of the arch of the niche, the reference to the hands in shadow where the sleeves meet, and the saint's left foot uncovered by the Pope to reveal the presence of a stigmata* with fresh blood.
* Miraculous mark on the body resembling one of the five wounds of the crucified Christ (on the feet, hands and side)

Eugenio Cajés
Madrid (Spain), 1574 -1634
Pope Nicholas V Contemplating the Body of Saint Francis
Ca. 1613
Graphite, pen, black ink, sepia wash, white chalk highlights, squared paper
Vienna, the Albertina
A painter to King Philip III of Spain, Eugenio Cajés mainly executed commissions for churches in and around Madrid. He was the first to paint the discovery of the body of Saint Francis of Assisi by Pope Nicholas V for the cloister of the Convent of San Francisco el Grande in Madrid. This preparatory drawing gives us an idea of the painting, which has unfortunately disappeared. Cajés depicted the Pope uncovering the stigmata* on the saint's foot, next to Cardinal Astorgio Agnesi, who holds the torch illuminating the scene, accompanied by the Pope's secretary and the convent's caretaker. Saint Francis appears standing, facing forward, his head covered by a hood and drenched in light, his eyes turned upwards and his hands hidden by his sleeves, as in Cardinal Agnesi's account.
* Miraculous marks on the body resembling the five wounds of the crucified Christ (on the hands, feet and side)

Pedro de Mena
Granada (Spain), 1628 - Malaga (Spain), 1688
Saint Francis of Assisi and the Vision of Pope Nicholas V
Ca. 1660-1670
Sculpture in the round, wood, polychrome, glass (eyes), ivory (teeth), hair (eyelashes)
Antequera, Museo de la Ciudad de Antequera (MVCA)
Ecclesiastical deposit by the parish of San Miguel
Zurbarán drew his inspiration for the Saint Francis paintings in Lyon, Barcelona and Boston from paintings on the same theme as well as sculptures by Gregorio Fernández (1576-1636) from the 1620s and 1630s. The painter's works in turn stimulated a large-scale production of sculptures, the prototype of which is the Saint Francis made around 1663 by Pedro de Mena for Toledo Cathedral. The striking effect produced by these sculptures derives from the combination of real objects, such as rope, with illusionistic polychromy. Like Zurbarán, Pedro de Mena applied a realistic treatment to his subject in order to make the sacred tangible for the believer. The indentation in the habit on the right side and the uncovered right foot make the fresh blood of the stigmata* visible, and the pinkish flesh makes the deceased saint seem alive.
* Miraculous marks on the body resembling the five wounds of the crucified Christ (on the hands, feet and side)

Fernando Ortiz
Málaga (Spain), 1717 - 1771
Saint Francis of Assisi
1738
Sculpture in the round, wood, polychrome, glass (eyes), rope (belt)
Valladolid, Museo Nacional de Escultura
In the 18th century, sculptors continued to depict Saint Francis as discovered by Pope Nicholas V in 1449, following in the footsteps of Zurbarán's paintings and Pedro de Mena's sculptures on the same theme. Fernando Ortiz seems to have been inspired here by the Saint Francis sculpted by Pedro de Mena on the choir stalls in Málaga Cathedral. Like his predecessors, Ortiz used glass eyes and a rope belt, with the same concern for realism and the same techniques being used from one generation to the next. According to the dedication, the sculpture was blessed by Miguel de Aguiar de Padilla, a native of Málaga who was Bishop of Ceuta between 1738 and 1743. Praying before this Saint Francis allowed believers to obtain forty days of indulgence, i.e. remission of the punishment for their sins.