ENGLISH

One and Many

At the start of his career, in 1629, Zurbarán received his first major commission for the Church of San Buenaventura at the College of the Franciscans of the Observance in Seville. Thirty years later, he completed another important series of paintings for the Franciscan order of the Friars Minor of the Observance in Madrid. In the intervening years, the artist and his studio produced around fifty paintings of Saint Francis for churches and private chapels.

Whether Saint Francis appears standing or kneeling, full-length or in bust form, in front of the plain backdrop of a cell, in a grotto or in the open air in front of his hermitage at Alverne near Arezzo, his meditation is invariably based on the contemplation of a human skull in accordance with the Spiritual Exercises, a book of prayers written by the priest Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556).

This collection of Saint Francis paintings from the 1630s to the end of the 1650s allows us to appreciate the constant success of these works. It also reveals the painter's stylistic evolution: towards the end of his career, he abandoned his preferred palette, which had been reduced to a few shades, and the broad shadows that cut through the forms in favour of a more nuanced chromatic palette and a brighter atmosphere.

The Saint Francis in London's National Gallery was the most striking of all the paintings exhibited in the Spanish Gallery of Louis-Philippe I, King of the French, at the Palais du Louvre from 1838 to 1848. It was considered the quintessence of both Zurbarán's art and Spanish mysticism.

Citation

“Compared with these, Lesueur! Your friars fade.
Seville's Zurbaran could more truly show
Th' ecstatic gaze, the head that sufferings shade.

That faith-born maze, celestial vertigo,
Which makes them rays emit of feverish light,
Their aspect which strange terror scems to know.

How his hard brush, furrows, with savage might
Digs, for repentant tears along their face
To course, now fill their eyes remorse, affright!

Their long, wan garb, how doth he stiffly trace!
How gives it the sad aspect of a shroud,
As if its foldings did a corpse embrace!

How paints them spell-bound at the altar bowed,
Kissing the dead Christ's blood-stained feet divine,
Scourging their quivering backs with lashes ploughed,

Treading as tranced the cloister's dreary line,
Or scated with their scanty fare outlaid;
All true to nature does his art design.

Two hues alone, wan light and darkest shade;
Two gestures, one erect, one on bent knees;
Their history thus and life in full displayed.”

Théophile Gautier, excerpt from the poem "To Zurbarán", from the collection España, 1845

Labels

Francisco de Zurbarán
Saint Francis in Meditation
Ca. 1635-1639
Oil on canvas
London, The National Gallery
Only a discreet stigmata on the right hand distinguishes this Saint Francis from any other monk belonging to the Capuchin order. Capuchins were distinguished by their scrupulous application of the Franciscan rule and led a life of extreme austerity, as evidenced here by the stitching and patching of the habit. The "close-up" framing around the life-size figure creates a close, almost intimate feeling. A key work in the Spanish gallery of the French king Louis-Philippe, which was open to the public in the Louvre palace from 1838 to 1848, the painting aroused the interest of critics and artists alike. Considered the quintessence of Zurbarán's art and of Spanish mysticism, it was the subject of numerous commentaries and engraved reproductions, which were decisive in establishing the artist's reputation.

Francisco de Zurbarán
Saint Francis of Assisi Contemplating a Skull
Ca. 1633-1635
Oil on canvas
Saint Louis, Saint Louis Art Museum
Saint Francis is depicted facing the viewer, standing on a platform in front of a sculpture-like, cross-vaulted niche. With his head bent down towards a skull, the saint meditates on the passion of Christ and human destiny. His silhouette stands out powerfully against a dark background. This vivid contrast makes it possible to date the work to the beginning of Zurbarán's career. The long, pointed bonnet indicates that the painting was made for the Capuchins. It comes from a chapel in the church of the Colegio de San Alberto de las Carmelitas Calzados in Seville, which also featured a Saint Blaise (Bucharest, the National Museum of Art of Romania), a Saint Thomas and a Saint Cyril (Boston, Museum of Fine Arts). Zurbarán used this composition in other paintings and his workshop used it in smaller formats, such as the one found in the Prado Museum.

Francisco de Zurbarán
Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy
Ca. 1658-1660
Oil on canvas
Munich, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen-Alte Pinakothek
This isolated figure of Saint Francis in ecstasy, depicted in a half-body, three-quarter view and holding a skull, follows in the footsteps of El Greco. This modest-sized painting is a work of devotion--used for prayer--intended for a private client. The light tones and refined palette, consisting of a cameo of beiges and browns and silvery and bluish greys, place the work in the artist's late production. The expressive power of this composition no doubt explains its success as it was duplicated by Zurbarán's workshop and copied extensively in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Francisco de Zurbarán
Saint Francis in Prayer
1659
Oil on canvas
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado
Zurbarán painted this Saint Francis five years before his death, in Madrid, where he had settled the previous year, after having spent the majority of his career--more than 30 years--in Seville. It thus reflects the style employed by the artist in his last years, characterised by greater luminosity, less marked contrasts, softer modelling and greater chromatic richness. Nevertheless, the painter continued to depict his subjects with the same care, and his compositions are just as contemplative as before. The Prado Museum recently acquired the counterpart to this work, depicting Saint Francis of Paola, who was inspired by the example of Saint Francis of Assisi to create the Order of Minims.