The Quiet Monks of Francisco de Zurbarán Paintings
No painter of the Spanish Baroque has carved the inner stillness of a monastic vocation as movingly as Francisco de Zurbarán. The Francisco de Zurbarán paintings that fill the cloisters of Seville, the Cartuja of Jerez, and the great museums of Europe and the Americas have a sculptural quietness that no other seventeenth century master quite achieved. He painted Carthusians, Mercedarians, Franciscans, and Hieronymites, each in their distinctive habit, lit by the same silvery raking light, each one isolated in a hushed cell or cloister. He is the painter of the contemplative life.
This article gathers ten of his most important religious works, the panels that made him the official painter of the Catholic religious orders of Spain in the second quarter of the seventeenth century.
From Estremadura to Seville
Zurbarán was baptised on 7 November 1598 in Fuente de Cantos, a small town in Estremadura, the son of a haberdasher named Luis de Zurbarán and his wife Isabel Márquez. At the age of fifteen he was apprenticed to the painter Pedro Díaz de Villanueva in Seville, where he absorbed the local school of late Mannerist religious painting. By 1626 he had a workshop of his own and was filling the convents and monasteries of Andalusia with the calm tenebrist images that became his lifelong signature.
In 1634 he made a brief but consequential trip to Madrid, where he worked for the king in the new Buen Retiro Palace and saw the Italian and Flemish masterpieces of the royal collection. The visit transformed his palette but not his temperament. He returned to Seville, married three times in succession, and continued to paint the monastic religious life of southern Spain until the rise of Murillo in the 1650s eclipsed his style and forced him in 1658 to move to Madrid, where he died six years later.
Saint Serapion
Painted in 1628 for the Mercedarian friary of Seville, this is one of the most concentrated devotional images of the entire Spanish Baroque. The Mercedarian friar Saint Serapion, martyred in Algiers in 1240 for ransoming Christian captives, is shown bound to a tree with his arms outstretched, his head fallen on his shoulder. He fills the picture from edge to edge, his white habit cascading in heavy folds, lit by a raking light that turns the cloth into something carved.
The painting is now at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut, one of the most prized Spanish paintings in the United States.
The Vision of Saint Peter Nolasco
From the same Mercedarian commission as the Saint Serapion, this large altarpiece shows the founder of the order kneeling in prayer when he is granted a vision of the heavenly Jerusalem, descending in a luminous cloud above him. Zurbarán paints the vision as a soft golden light that hovers over the white habit of the saint, while the rest of the cell remains in deep shadow.
The painting is at the Museo del Prado in Madrid.
Saint Francis in Ecstasy
The founder of the Order of Friars Minor stands in three-quarter view, his eyes lifted to heaven, a skull held in his crossed hands. Zurbarán paints the brown Franciscan habit with the patient observation of a sculptor working in wood, every fold and patch carefully recorded. The face is partly hidden under the hood, and the only sign of the vision Francis is contemplating is the warm light that falls on his upturned face.
The painting is at the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, part of the Bavarian State Painting Collections.
The Young Virgin
One of Zurbarán’s most loved devotional images, this small panel shows the young Mary, perhaps eight or ten years old, kneeling at her embroidery while she pauses in prayer. The interior is bare except for a vase of lilies, an open book of Scripture, and a few sewing tools on the table. Two small angels hover above her head. The whole picture is a hushed meditation on the future Mother of God in her childhood years.
The painting is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Childhood of the Virgin
A closely related composition shows the same young Mary, in slightly older guise, with the same vase of lilies and the same hushed interior. Both panels probably belong to a series of paintings of the Marian childhood that Zurbarán produced for an unknown convent in the 1630s. The Hermitage version is even more concentrated than the Metropolitan version.
The painting is at the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg.
Christ and the Virgin in the House at Nazareth
One of the most original of Zurbarán’s devotional compositions, this picture shows the boy Christ in the carpenter’s workshop of Joseph, having just pricked his finger on the thorns of a wreath he was weaving. The Virgin looks up from her embroidery in maternal anxiety. The whole scene reads as a quiet prefiguration of the Crown of Thorns of the Passion, with the angels above the Virgin and the still life on the table arranged like the elements of a religious meditation.
The painting is at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Saint Casilda
One of a series of saintly female figures Zurbarán painted in the 1630s, this picture shows the eleventh century princess Casilda of Toledo, daughter of the Muslim emir, dressed in luxurious silk and gold court attire. According to legend, her father caught her smuggling bread to the imprisoned Christians of her city, and when challenged, the loaves she carried turned into roses. Zurbarán shows her at the moment of this discovery, looking back over her shoulder in calm dignity.
The painting is at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid.
Saint Agatha
The third century Sicilian martyr Saint Agatha is shown holding a plate with her severed breasts, the attribute of her martyrdom under the persecution of Decius. Zurbarán paints her with the same calm dignity as Saint Casilda, in a sober deep red robe with a white veil. The picture belongs to a long tradition of paired saintly women he produced for Sevillian convents.
The painting is at the Musée Fabre in Montpellier.
Saint Margaret of Antioch
The fourth century virgin martyr Saint Margaret stands in three-quarter view, dressed as a shepherdess with a wide brimmed hat and a staff. According to legend, she was swallowed by a dragon while in prison but burst forth alive when she made the sign of the cross. Zurbarán paints her with the same calm gaze and the same rich brocade fabrics as Casilda and Agatha.
The painting is at the National Gallery in London.
Saint Luke as a Painter before Christ on the Cross
Saint Luke, traditionally said to have painted the first icon of the Virgin, kneels at the foot of the cross with his palette in his hand. The face of Luke is widely accepted to be a self-portrait of Zurbarán. The picture is a personal statement of the painter’s identification with his patron saint and an act of professional devotion.
The painting is at the Museo del Prado in Madrid.
For more context on Zurbarán’s Spanish world, see our articles on his great Sevillian successor Murillo, on the Granada master Alonso Cano, and on the Naples Spaniard Jusepe de Ribera. The wider tradition of Baroque Jesus paintings holds Zurbarán as its most monastic voice.
Summary Table of Francisco de Zurbarán’s Religious Paintings
| Name | Artist | Date | Medium | Museum |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint Serapion | Francisco de Zurbarán | 1628 | Oil on canvas | Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford |
| The Vision of Saint Peter Nolasco | Francisco de Zurbarán | 1629 | Oil on canvas | Museo del Prado, Madrid |
| Saint Francis in Ecstasy | Francisco de Zurbarán | c. 1635 to 1640 | Oil on canvas | Alte Pinakothek, Munich |
| The Young Virgin | Francisco de Zurbarán | c. 1632 to 1633 | Oil on canvas | Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
| Childhood of the Virgin | Francisco de Zurbarán | c. 1632 to 1633 | Oil on canvas | Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg |
| Christ and the Virgin in the House at Nazareth | Francisco de Zurbarán | c. 1640 | Oil on canvas | Cleveland Museum of Art |
| Saint Casilda | Francisco de Zurbarán | c. 1630 to 1635 | Oil on canvas | Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid |
| Saint Agatha | Francisco de Zurbarán | c. 1630 to 1633 | Oil on canvas | Musée Fabre, Montpellier |
| Saint Margaret of Antioch | Francisco de Zurbarán | c. 1630 to 1635 | Oil on canvas | National Gallery, London |
| Saint Luke as a Painter before Christ on the Cross | Francisco de Zurbarán | c. 1635 to 1640 | Oil on canvas | Museo del Prado, Madrid |
Conclusion
Zurbarán’s religious painting is the visual record of an entire Catholic universe that no longer exists. The Sevillian monasteries that commissioned his great cycles are mostly gone, their cloisters secularised in the nineteenth century, their altarpieces dispersed across the museums of the world. But the paintings themselves have lost none of their gravity. To stand before his Saint Serapion at the Wadsworth Atheneum, or his Saint Francis at the Alte Pinakothek, is to feel the weight of three centuries of monastic Spanish Catholicism brought to a single hushed image. He painted habits the way Velázquez painted royal courts, and in both cases the discipline of the eye carried the discipline of the soul.
Important Facts About Francisco de Zurbarán
- Francisco de Zurbarán was baptised on 7 November 1598 in Fuente de Cantos, in the Estremadura region of western Spain, the son of Luis de Zurbarán, a haberdasher, and his wife Isabel Márquez.
- He trained from 1614 in the Seville workshop of the painter Pedro Díaz de Villanueva and worked his early career in the Andalusian capital, where he became the favourite painter of the Mercedarians, the Dominicans, and the Carthusians.
- Zurbarán is one of the central figures of the Spanish Baroque and is especially celebrated for his monastic paintings, in which the white or brown habits of the religious orders are rendered with a sculptural tenebrist precision that has no parallel in seventeenth century Europe.
- His most famous religious work is the Saint Serapion, painted in 1628 for the Mercedarian friary of Seville and now displayed at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut.
- He died on 27 August 1664 in Madrid, having moved from Seville in 1658 after the rise of Murillo had eclipsed his style, and his influence on the painting of the Spanish religious orders was lasting and continuous in both the peninsula and the Americas.
Questions and Answers About Francisco de Zurbarán Paintings
What is Francisco de Zurbarán’s most famous painting?
His most celebrated single work is the Saint Serapion of 1628 at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford. Among his other widely known paintings are the Saint Francis in Ecstasy at the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, the Young Virgin at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and the great Christ on the Cross at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Where can I see Zurbarán paintings today?
The Museo del Prado in Madrid, the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg, the Metropolitan Museum and the Frick Collection in New York, and the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford hold the most important works abroad. In Spain the Cartuja of Jerez de la Frontera and the Museo de Bellas Artes of Seville preserve several monastic cycles still close to their original convent settings.
What style is Francisco de Zurbarán associated with?
Zurbarán is the most monastic voice of the Spanish Baroque. His mature style is built on sharp tenebrist light, sculptural drapery, austere compositions of one or two figures against dark grounds, and the silent contemplative atmosphere of the religious life. The closest Italian analogue is Caravaggio, but Zurbarán’s restraint and his focus on the inward face of holiness are entirely his own.
Did Zurbarán mainly paint monks?
Yes, the heart of his production is the religious orders of Spain. He worked extensively for the Mercedarians, the Carthusians, the Dominicans, the Franciscans, and the Hieronymites, and the white or brown habits of these orders are some of the most recognisable visual signatures of his work. He also painted Madonnas, child Christs, and series of saintly women in court dress.
How does Zurbarán compare with Velázquez?
The two painters were exact contemporaries and both worked in Seville in the 1610s and 1620s, where they probably knew each other. Velázquez went to court and became the painter of the king; Zurbarán stayed in Andalusia and became the painter of the monasteries. Velázquez is silvery and atmospheric; Zurbarán is sculptural and tenebrist. They are the two great poles of seventeenth century Spanish painting.
Why are Zurbarán’s habits so important?
The religious habits of the Spanish orders carried a precise theological and social meaning, and Zurbarán painted them with the same care that the Flemish miniaturists gave to the brocades of fifteenth century princes. The white wool of the Carthusians, the brown of the Franciscans, the cream and red of the Mercedarians, each one is rendered with such sculptural exactness that we can almost feel the weight and weave of the cloth. The habit is the saint’s vow made visible.
Can you buy Francisco de Zurbarán paintings as canvas prints?
The shop at jesuschrist.pictures offers museum-quality canvas reproductions of the great Christian paintings, and the collection keeps growing; it is the best place to look for Francisco de Zurbarán paintings as canvas prints.
