Zurbarán, Francisco de (fränthēs`kō thā th

rbärän`), 1598–1664, Spanish baroque painter, active mainly at Llerena, Madrid, and Seville. He worked mostly for ecclesiastical patrons. His early paintings, including Crucifixion (1627; Art Inst., Chicago), St. Michael (Metropolitan Mus.), and St. Francis (City Art Museum, St. Louis), often suggest the austere simplicity of wooden sculpture. The figures, placed close to the picture surface, are strongly modeled in dramatic light against dark backgrounds, indicating the influence of Caravaggio. They were clearly painted as altarpieces or devotional objects. In the 1630s the realistic style seen in his famous Apotheosis of St. Thomas Aquinas (1631; Seville) yields to a more mystical expression in works such as the Adoration of the Shepherds (1638; Grenoble); in this decade he was influenced by Ribera's figural types and rapid brushwork. While in Seville, Zurburán was clearly influenced by Velázquez. After c.1640 the simple power of Zurbarán's work lessened as Murillo's influence on his painting increased (e.g., Virgin and Child with St. John, Fine Arts Gall., San Diego, Calif.). There are works by Zurbarán in the Hispanic Society of America, New York City; the National Gallery, Washington, D.C.; and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Bibliography

See study by M. S. Soria (repr. 1955).

Zurbarán, Francisco de

(baptized Nov. 7, 1598, Fuente de Cantos, Spain—died Aug. 27, 1664, Madrid) Spanish painter. He was apprenticed in 1614 to a painter in Sevilla (Seville), where he lived until 1658 when he moved to Madrid. He had a few royal commissions but remained throughout his life a provincial painter of religious pictures. His apostles, saints, and monks are painted with almost sculptural modeling, and his emphasis on the minutiae of their dress lends verisimilitude to their miracles, visions, and ecstasies. This distinctive combination of naturalism with religious sensibility conforms to the guidelines for Counter-Reformation artists outlined by the Council of Trent. He had numerous commissions from monasteries and churches throughout southern Spain, and many of his works were sent to Lima, Peru. His late devotional paintings show the influence of Bartolomé Esteban Murillo.