MALE NARRATOR:
Francisco de Zurbarán was the prototypical painter of the Counter-Reformation, a Catholic reform movement responding to the rise of Protestantism during the 16th and early 17th centuries. His most charismatic works are single figures of saints in meditation or prayer, imbued with great mystical intensity.
Here, he depicts Saint Francis, the founder of the Franciscan order. The rope around his traditional habit has three knots representing the religious vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. He kneels in a cave by a rocky ledge, his eyes piously turned toward heaven. According to his biographer Thomas of Celano:
THOMAS OF CELANO [ACTOR]:
“He was short, his face slightly elongated with average eyes, brown and simple … thin lips, black beard but sparse, and was extremely thin, his clothing coarse.”
NARRATOR:
Illuminated by a single source of light, St. Francis is dramatically isolated against the black background, so that all our attention is focused on him. Magnificent effects of light and dark lend the painting an almost theatrical quality.
In the mid 16th century, the gentle, often beardless St. Francis of earlier paintings was transformed into a fervent penitent befitting the new reformist ideology. He was often depicted with a skull as a reminder of man’s mortality, bearing stigmata, the wounds Christ received on the cross. In Spain, this version of St. Francis was popularized by El Greco, who made some 50 paintings of him. But Zurbarán created the definitive representation of the type in paintings like this one.
Saint Francis in Prayer
c. 1638-1639
Francisco de Zurbarán (Spanish, 1598-1664)
On View
St. Francis of Assisi, a mystic and poet, was also the founder of the Franciscans, an important mendicant order. Zurbarán portrayed the saint in his later years, which Francis devoted to meditating on the suffering of the crucified Christ. The artist's tight focus on the figure is in keeping with Counter-Reformation aesthetics as defined by St. Ignatius of Loyola, who prescribed directness and realism in the representation of religious subjects. Though the figure is modeled with strong chiaroscuro, the variations of ocher tones and distant landscape mellow the intensity of the saint's concentration.
Details
- Artist Name: Francisco de Zurbarán (Spanish, 1598-1664)
- Title: Saint Francis in Prayer
- Date: c. 1638-1639
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 46 1/4 x 35 1/2 in. (117.5 x 90.2 cm)
- Credit Line: The Norton Simon Foundation
- Accession Number: F.1975.03.P
- Copyright: © The Norton Simon Foundation
Object Information
Probably King Louis Philippe, the Spanish Gallery (sale, London, Christie’s, 6-21 May 1853, lot 52, to);
Bryant.
E. Clarence Shepard, by 1864.
Jameson, by descent to;
Anonymous [Mrs. S. D. Young-Jamieson] sale, (Sotheby’s, London, 3 November 1971, lot 19, for £1050 to);
[B. Cohen of Trafalgar Galleries, London, on behalf of ARTEX, International, S.A.S., London, sold 1975 to];
The Norton Simon Foundation.
Bryant.
E. Clarence Shepard, by 1864.
Jameson, by descent to;
Anonymous [Mrs. S. D. Young-Jamieson] sale, (Sotheby’s, London, 3 November 1971, lot 19, for £1050 to);
[B. Cohen of Trafalgar Galleries, London, on behalf of ARTEX, International, S.A.S., London, sold 1975 to];
The Norton Simon Foundation.
[on loan]
- London, British Institution, 1864 to
- Frati, T.; and M. Gregori, L'opera completa di Zurbaran, no. 346 p. 111
- Young, Eric, The Burlington Magazine, fig. 1 p. 247
- Young, Eric, The Connoisseur, fig. 7 pp. 183-184
- Gállego, Julián and José Gudiol, Zurbaran 1598-1664: Biography and Critical Analysis, 1977, no. 472, fig. 424
- Masterpieces from the Norton Simon Museum, 1989, p. 48
- David Hockney, Secret Knowledge: Retracing Six Centuries of Western Art, 2001, p. 178, 179 (detail)
- Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best, 2010, cat. 1134 p. 375
- Various authors, edited by Mark Rogián, Spanish Art in America, 2016, p. 192 ; p. 190 (ill.)
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