Fig. 1: Francisco de Zurbarán, Saint Francis in Meditation, ca. 1635, oil on canvas, 94 x 68.5 cm., Private Collection, New Jersey.
A NEWLY uneartheD zurbarán “ST. Francis”
A new painting of Saint Francis attributed to Francisco de Zurbarán [1](fig. 1)has emerged from a private estate in New Jersey. The original version, which was known through a copy in the collection of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, provides an opportunity for a proper comparison to similar paintings of St. Francis by Zurbarán during the 1630s. Completed over the span of the decade, this series of the dramatically lit Francis, in varying states of religious devotion, has been one of the most recognizable corpuses within the artist’s oeuvre. A closer look at the series shows how Zurbarán evolved the model of this composition over time.
The current work most likely dates to around 1635, which can be based off its stylistic similarity to other renditions of the subject by Zurbarán from around the same period. Two full-length versions- the small-scale St. Francis Contemplating a Skull in the collection of the Saint Louis Art Museum (35 x 12 in.) (fig 3), and another much larger version, Saint Francis of Assisi in His Tomb at the Milwaukee Art Museum (80 5/8 x 44 5/8 in.) (fig 4) have respectively been dated to ca.1633-35 and 1635, in the artist’s most recent catalog raisonné. [2]
Both of these paintings, as well as the rest of the works discussed herein all date to the 1630s. They exhibit a similar iconographic model found in the present picture. St. Francis is set against a dark background. Saint Francis’ figure divides the background into two separate colors; the left half is flat black, the other, a tone of mossy brown. Their divergence helps to accentuate the dramatically lit Francis, who we find deeply ensconced in meditation.
The simplified palette, and solidity of the figure are part of the stark realism that charachterizes Zurbarán’s Saint Francises from this decade. The painter was adhering to the decorum of Counter-Reformative art in Seville at that time, which was influenced by the writings of St. Ignatius of Loyola. St. Ingnatius’ seminal publication of Exercisia Spiritualiaencouraged a more contemplative and individual understanding of the gospels. The unhindered clarity of Zurbarán’s Saint Francises, in their simple and arresting fashion, was designed to facilitate such a moving experience.
II. Formal analysis and comparison
Unlike the rest of the works discussed herein, the rendering of St. Francis in this picture is in a half-length profile. The aura of St. Francis is thereby increased, putting him much closer to the picture plane and to the viewer’s own sense of space. The figure sets an almost instructive example of piety for the viewer, wholly immersed in meditation. Zurbarán’s austere palette, which is mainly comprised of black and brown, also adds to the picture’s solemnity, yet the subtle range of tones used therein is quite varied.
Fig. 3: Francisco de Zurbarán, Saint Francis in Contemplation with a Skull, ca. 1633-1635, oil on canvas, 91 x 32 cm., Saint Louis Art Museum.
Fig. 4: Francisco de Zurbarán, Saint Francis, ca.1635, oil on canvas, 204 x 112 cm., Milwaukee Art Museum.
Fig. 2: Francisco de Zurbarán and Studio, Saint Francis in Meditation, ca. 1635, oil on canvas, 95 x 70 cm., Santa Barbara Museum of Art.
This picture, while considered lost for years, was nevertheless known through a copy in the collection of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art (Fig. 2), of which is described in Delenda’s catalog raisonné. While a fine work in its own right, it was suspected to be a product of Zurbarán’s studio, based on its lack of pentimenti and insipid handling of tones and highlights in Francis’ face and habit. A close comparison of the two pictures reveals that this is indeed the case, as the tones and detailing of Francis’ garb in the Santa Barbara picture have a watery, washed-out feel (Fig 2a.)
The colors of the current picture are of a much richer spectrum, which is especially seen in the subtle tonal changes used to express the coarseness of Francis’ habit. Blotches of darker brown in the upper half of the habit suggest a dusty, weathered quality to its surface. Its patchwork quality is beautifully conveyed by a minor darkening of brown from the upper and middle halves of the robe, which is made distinctive by a delicate line of stitching across Francis’ torso. The garment of the current picture is sullied but beautiful-rich in tone, and almost statuesque in Zurbarán’s combination of drapery and deep shadow. We can better see how Zurbarán endowed St. Francis with a sense of nobility in the midst of his penury. Zurbarán uses a similar effect in his rendering of St. Francis’ hands, which are both grimy (as seen in Francis’ dirty fingernails) yet elegantly painted.
Fig. 2a: Francisco de Zurbarán and Studio, Saint Francis in Meditation, detail of drapery.
A little bit above Francis’ hands, the faint impression of the Saint’s rope belt and its three knots of virtue representing poverty, chastity, and obedience can be made out. It is shrouded in shadow, yet rife in symbolism. Its intersection with the memento mori of the skull in Saint Francis’ hands forms a compounded allusion to the devout asceticism of which Saint Francis had come to be associated with, during his reinvention in Counter-Reformative imagery.
Fig. 6: Francisco de Zurbarán, Saint Francis, ca.1632, oil on canvas, 114 x 78 cm., Collection of Dr. Alejandro Shaw, Buenos Aires.
Other justifications for the picture’s attribution were made on the basis of pentimenti along the contours of Francis, which can be particularly seen in person along the lower right hand area of the figure’s torso. Here we see a confident streak of light brown, splayed outside the contours of the habit, that has been left untouched. A comparison of both pictures under infra-red reflectography could provide an insightful look into the origins of this mark, and a further look at Zurbarán’s changes throughout the composition, however that has yet to have been completed as of present.
Nevertheless, the enhanced sense of detail and tonality of the current picture does serve us in lieu in comparison to the corpus of St. Francises discussed here. Namely, it is an stylistic transition from more simplified combinations of light and shadow in the aforementioned full length figures in St. Louis and Milwaukee, and richer and more subtle displays, as seen in the Buenos Aires Saint Francis of 1632 (Fig. 6) and the celebrated version housed at the National Gallery in London- which is seen by many to be a culmination of Zurbarán’s religious ardor. (Fig. 7)
The dating of the Buenos Aires version (ascribed by the artist with his signature) precedes the more basic full-length versions in St. Louis and Milwaukee, and is thereby inconvenient to the notion that Zurbarán developed this series of St. Francises into an increasingly detailed model. Nevertheless, the overall corpus attests to Zurbarán’s tact for serial production in religious imagery, which as discussed later, was a hallmark throughout the course of his career. It demonstrates the creative ingenuity of the artist, who was developing a compositional template for different purposes. The sharp contrast of light and shadow, and the simplified iconic profile of the large-scale Milwaukee painting was perhaps suited for public worship. Indeed, its vertical format suggests that it was intended for showcase in a church or altarpiece.[3] More sumptuous designs, could conversely have been prepared for individual devotion.
Fig. 5: Francisco de Zurbarán, Saint Francis Kneeling, ca.1635, oil on canvas, 112 x 89.5 cm., Private Collection, Milan.
Another motif in this series that bears consideration is Zurbarán’s rendering of Saint Francis’ face. Earlier versions such as figures #1, 2, and 6 display Saint Francis in a more stoic fashion. His eyes are closed in concentration, a lack of emotion is felt in his steady, parallel eyebrows. More importantly, his face is nearly or entirely shrouded in shadow.
The current picture, however, is the direct opposite-light has now been cast upon the face of St. Francis, along with the facially similar Saint Francis Kneeling (Fig. 5). In these two pictures, Francis’ expression is now transfixed, and creates a heightened sense of devotion. Here is first evidence of Zurbarán’s experimentation with Francis’ countenance, which had untapped emotional resonance within the desensitized chamber that Zurbarán had created around him.
The motif of the lit face, herein, also forms a link to Zurbarán’s famous version of St. Francis in London (Fig. 7). In the London picture, the head of St. Francis is now a synthesis of light and dark. Drawing from the earlier unlit models, and the lit model of the current picture, we are now presented with a Francis who is halfway shrouded in light. The result of this is symbolically explosive-Francis is not only delicately situated between light and dark, but perhaps between life and death, as he meditates on his fragile mortality.
Fig. 7: Francisco de Zurbarán, Saint Francis in Ecstacy, ca.1640-45, oil on canvas, 152 x 99 cm., National Gallery, London.
III. Zurbarán’s Working Methods
As mentioned previously, the similar constructions of Zurbarán’s Saint Francis pictures show his stylistic tendency for seriality-creating similarly figured subjects whose poses could be reworked and interchanged. Indeed, this was by necessity, as Zurbarán first established himself by painting multi-work commissions of Saints and religious scenes for monasteries. His initial success had hinged on his agile ability to paint effective iconography in a manner that was accurate, efficient, and most importantly economical. As Jonathan Brown notes in his essay, “Patronage and Piety: Religious Imagery in the Art of Francisco de Zurbarán,” Zurbarán’s breakthrough commission for the Dominicans of San Pablo in 1626 was partially due to his willingness to take on the project for a price “that was well below the customary fee paid to established painters.”[4]
Zurbarán’s embrace of compositional models, however, would most egregiously take form in his manufacturing of portraits of Saints and Angels for the developing market for religious portraiture in the New World, the beginnings of which also occurred in the 1630s. Zurbarán’s production approach towards this speculative market was to favor quantity over quality. Generic models of various Saints and Angels were designed to be churned out by Zurbarán’s studio, so as to appeal to as wide an audience as possible.
This range of St. Francises, however, are considered to be primarily by the master’s hand, created over the course of a decade, and of a much better quality. Nevertheless, they show his acumen for creating both an effective and commercially viable image that could be recreated. These St. Francises were most likely commissions for the prosperous monastaries, that almost exclusively formed Zurbarán’s patronage during this period. Scholarship of these pictures has linked them to the Caputian order, which is referenced in the pointed hood of the habit, which they championed as accurate to the garb of the original Franciscans. The patchwork nature of St. Francis’ habit is also a reference to “el poverillo” identity (“little poor man”), which was central to the Caputians’ ascetic beliefs.
In the preceding age, St. Francis was portrayed in a more benevolent manner-the charitable man, and lover of animals. Giovanni Bellini’s Saint Francis in the Desert was perhaps the definitive image of Francis and his miraculous stigmatization. In Counter-Reformative Spain, however, prescriptions for his iconography would undergo a radical reconfiguration, which emphasized the more sacrificial aspects of Francis’ faith-the poverty and seclusion that he chose in service of god.
It is not coincidental then, that Zurbarán’s stripped down approach would best suit such an ascetic figure. In Francis, Zurbarán found an optimal subject who was not only a celebrated subject in Christian art at the time, but one who was typically depicted in isolation. As seen in the pictures presented here, Zurbarán’s Tenebrist model could thereupon play upon the nuances of his piety, creating direct and austere images that enhanced the story of St. Francis’ devotional solitude.
Zurbarán therein, found a sweet spot in this series of St. Francises, between his unique creativity and the demands of the market. They are all variations on a popular subject that were different compositionally but all shared a similar intensity of the master’s touch. They were trademark images-both satisfying market demand and acting as calling cards, and a production model that he would later rework in his renditions of St. Francis amidst landscapes during the 1640s and 50s.
V. Post-script
The current painting’s ownership history dates back to the early 20th century, where it was first listed with the David Koetser gallery in London. It was thereupon sold at Christie’s in London on April 1, 1938 as lot 38, titled Zurbarán: A Franciscan Monk holding a Skull. The painting was then acquired by the New York collector Richard Goetz. In 1952, it entered the estate of its current owner, by descent; where it has remained in obscurity.
Fig. 8: Photo of Richard Goetz and his art collection (Saint Francis depicted to the left), courtesy Life Magazine digital archives.
The painting’s 1950 purchase by Goetz, a New York based art collector (Fig. 8) is another testament to the resurgence of Zurbarán in America towards the second half of the 20th century. Zurbarán had since lagged behind Velazquez, Goya and Murillo during the great period of American collecting of Spanish art during the Gilded Age. Yet rising interest in the artist, spurred by a 1916 translation of José Cascales y Muñoz’s monograph would lead to a prolific streak of collecting of his works from about 1920-1970. Major purchases included the Metropolitan Museum’s Battle between Christians and Moors at El Sotillo (1920), the monumental Crucifixionby the Art Institute of Chicago (1947), theSaint Seraphion of the Wadsworth Atheneum (1951), and Norton Simon’s magnificent Still Life with Lemons in 1972; for which Simon paid the then astounding price of $3 million USD. [5]
The story of this revival is the subject of Zurbarán and America, a current exhibition on view at the Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara, which is commemorating the 350th anniversary of the artist’s death through 2014. As the art historian John Marciari noted, Zurbarán has: “transcended ‘old master’ status and his works grow increasingly popular with American museum goers for whom galleries of Baroque paintings would otherwise fail to be an attraction. There can be few artists whose reputations in America have seen a greater change over the previous century.”[6]
[1] Attribution to the artist has been made by Odile Delenda, author of the Zurbarán catalog raisonné, and William B. Jordan, a noted scholar on the artist. Dr. Xavier Bray has suggested an attribution to “Zurbarán and Studio”
[2] See Delenda, Odile. Francisco De Zurbarán: Pintor 1598-1664. Paris: Wildenstein Institute, 2010. Vol. II, pp. 270, 360.
[3] A more detailed vertical model of St. Francis, St. Francis Following the Vision of Father Nicholas Vwas produced in multiple versions by Zurbarán around this period. In the interest of brevity, it has been omitted here.
[4] Brown, Jonathan. “Patronage and Piety: Religious Imagery in the Art of Francisco de Zurbarán,” in Zurbarán, ed. Baticle, Jeannine. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1987, p. 2.
[5] Marciari, John. "Zurbarán and America." ARS Magazine 20 (2013): 144.
[6] Ibid.