Francisco Zurbarán
1598 -1664
Francisco de Zurbarán was a Spanish painter. He is known primarily for his religious paintings depicting monks, nuns, and martyrs, and for his still-lives. Zurbarán gained the nickname 'Spanish Caravaggio', owing to the forcible, realistic use of chiaroscuro in which he excelled.
He was born at Fuente de Cantos in Extremadura, the son of Luis Zurbarán, a haberdasher, and his wife, Isabel Márquez. In childhood he set about imitating objects with charcoal. In 1614 his father sent him to Seville to apprentice for three years with Pedro Díaz de Villanueva, an artist of whom very little is known.
It is unknown whether Zurbarán had the opportunity to copy the paintings of Michelangelo da Caravaggio. At any rate, he adopted Caravaggio's realistic use of chiaroscuro. The painter who may have had the greatest influence on his characteristically severe compositions was Juan Sánchez Cotán. Polychrome sculpture, which by the time of Zurbarán's apprenticeship had reached a level of sophistication in Seville that surpassed that of the local painters, provided another important stylistic model for the young artist. The work of Juan Martínez Montañés is especially close to Zurbarán's in spirit.
He painted directly from nature, and he made great use of the lay-figure in the study of draperies, in which he was particularly proficient. He had a special gift for white draperies; as a consequence, the houses of the white-robed Carthusians are abundant in his paintings. To these rigid methods, Zurbarán is said to have adhered throughout his career, which was prosperous, wholly confined to Spain, and varied by few incidents beyond those of his daily labor. His subjects were mostly severe and ascetic religious vigils, the spirit chastising the flesh into subjection, the compositions often reduced to a single figure. The style is more reserved and chastened than Caravaggio's.
After 1640 his austere, harsh, hard edged style was unfavorably compared to the sentimental religiosity of Murillo and Zurbarán's reputation declined. It was only in 1658, late in Zurbarán's life that he moved to Madrid in search of work and renewed his contact with Velazquez. Zurbarán died in poverty and obscurity.
In 1627 he painted the great altarpiece of "St. Thomas Aquinas", now in the Seville museum. This is Zurbarán's largest composition, containing figures of Christ, the Madonna, various saints, Charles V with knights, and Archbishop Deza with monks and servitors.
In 1633 he finished the paintings of the high altar of the Carthusians in Jerez. In the palace of Buenretiro, Madrid are four large canvases representing the Labours of Hercules, an unusual instance of non-Christian subjects from the hand of Zurbarán. His principal scholars were Bernabe de Ayala and the brothers Polanco.
|
|
