"Christ and the Virgin in the House at Nazareth", Francisco de Zurbarán NFT on XRPL

"Christ and the Virgin in the House at Nazareth", Francisco de Zurbarán

Collection: Cleveland Originals

Stories of Christs childhood and adolescence became increasingly popular during the Counter-Reformation because they were easily understood by a broad public. Rather than taking a story from the Bible, Zurbarán appears to have invented this subject, in which Jesus pricks himself on a crown of thorns he is weaving, foretelling his later torment at the Crucifixion. Despite the grand scale and monumental figures, the work has remarkable intimacy and quietness, emphasizing such details as the Virgins tears. Artist Bio: Francisco de Zurbarán (Source of Cantos, Badajoz, 1598 - Madrid, 1664) was a Spanish painter, born to a prosperous Basque merchant settled in Extremadura since 1582. Between 1614 and 1617, he studied painting in Seville under the relatively unknown artist Pedro Díaz de Villanueva. During this period, he had the opportunity to meet Pacheco and Herrera, renowned masters, and establish connections with his contemporaries Velázquez and Cano, fellow apprentices in Seville at the time. After a few years of apprenticeship, likely more fruitful in various teachings than previously considered, Zurbarán returned to his native province without submitting to the Sevillian guild examination, a choice that would later be criticized. He settled in Llerena for eleven years (1617-1628), where he married twice and became a father at a young age. Zurbarán received commissions from the city of Llerena and various convents and churches in Extremadura. Unfortunately, most of the works from his early period have been lost, but the existence of a workshop in Llerena indicates significant activity. In 1626, the Sevillian Dominicans of San Pablo commissioned Zurbarán to paint a substantial series of paintings, though poorly compensated. Shortly after, the shod Mercedarians of the Casa Grande de Seville offered him a salary three times higher for a commission of similar magnitude. Of the San Pablo ensemble, the splendid Crucifixion (Art Institute of Chicago) remains, dated 1627, and three magnificent full figures of Church Fathers (Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla). While some scenes in the Life of Saint Dominic (Church of Magdalena, Seville) and various paintings in the important cycle of the Calzada Merced appear to involve multiple assistants, the remarkable San Serapio (1628, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford), undoubtedly autographed, showcases the young master's distinctive qualities: striking plasticity of forms, harmonious tonalities, and skillful distribution of light. The Prado Museum houses two of the most beautiful scenes from the life of Saint Peter Nolasco, while the rest is scattered in museums and collections worldwide. In 1629, following an unusual proposal from the Municipal Council, Zurbarán definitively settled in Seville. Around this time, he painted four significant canvases for the Franciscan college of San Buenaventura (Musée du Louvre, Paris, and Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden). This marked the beginning of the most prestigious decade of Zurbarán's career. The expressive power of his brushstroke, combined with his compliance with the wishes of his patrons, made him the best interpreter of the Catholic Reformation in the Spanish Golden Age. He received commissions from all the religious orders in Andalusia and Extremadura, working for the Jesuits (Vision of Blessed Alonso Rodríguez, 1630, Real Academia de San Fernando, Madrid), Dominicans (Apotheosis of Saint Thomas Aquinas, 1631, Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla), and also for the Sevillian convents of the Carmelites, Trinitarians, and Discalced Mercedarians. Zurbarán's success culminated in 1634 with an invitation from the court, possibly suggested by Velázquez, to participate in the decoration of the grand hall of Buen Retiro. There, Zurbarán painted the ten "Labors of Hercules" for the over-windows and two large battle scenes. Eleven of these paintings are preserved in the Prado Museum. Upon his return to Seville, the Extremaduran master continued working for his monastic patrons. Most paintings from two impressive series, likely the best of his production, have been preserved. The Cartuja de Jerez de la Frontera ensemble is dispersed among various museums (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; National Museum, Poznań, Poland; Museum of Cádiz). The four large canvases from the main altarpiece (Annunciation, Adoration of the Shepherds, 1638, Circumcision, 1639, and Adoration of the Magi, all in the Musée de Peinture et de Sculpture, Grenoble) exude an almost liturgical solemnity. The radiant chromatism of the attire and the technical perfection of these paintings belong to the pinnacle of his oeuvre. The Guadalupe series, the painter's only major commission preserved in situ, is of similar quality. The eight large paintings in the sacristy, painted in Seville in the same years (1638-1639), depict lesser-known episodes from the lives of the Hieronymite monks, such as Mass of Father Cabañuelas, Appearance of Christ to Father Salmerón, Friar Gonzalo de Illescas writing, etc. In the adjacent chapel, three episodes from the life of Saint Jerome are painted around 1645, with a tenebrist style strongly influenced by Ribera. From 1640 onward, large commissions dwindled as the American market expanded. In 1644, Zurbarán painted, with collaboration from his workshop, an altarpiece for the collegiate church of Zafra, and in 1655, the three celebrated horizontal canvases in the sacristy of the Sevillian Carthusian monastery of Santa María de las Cuevas (Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla). Mid-century, Seville suffered a severe economic downturn, exacerbated by a great plague in 1649 that significantly reduced its population. His son and collaborator, Juan, succumbed to this "contagious ailment." Francisco de Zurbarán then increased production in his workshop with series of founders of orders, holy virgins, or emperors for the New World. In 1658, likely prompted by the challenges of the Sevillian market, he moved to Madrid, where his wife and the only surviving daughter from this third marriage soon joined him. In his later years, we find various isolated works, often signed, unrelated to any series. These small-sized, finely executed devotional canvases exhibit an evolution in his style towards softer, velvety modeling. The old painter apparently had a good private clientele, but his health declined soon (his last signed work is from 1662), and he passed away in 1664 after a long illness that impoverished his family. However, he did not live in poverty, as has often been repeated. His testament contains no debts, leaving behind luxurious furniture, even though the rest of his possessions in Madrid were rather modest. Zurbarán is, of course, the great painter of monastic life, which he expresses with candid realism and extreme simplicity. No one, like him, has known how to translate with such precision and accuracy the various conventual habits. His portraits of monks are impressively truthful, and with few elements, he can convey the most intense mystical ecstasies. He excludes all grandiosity and theatricality, avoiding foreshortening and the suggestion of illusory Italian spaces. His severe, rigorously ordered compositions reach an exceptional level of pious emotion. Regarding tenebrism, Zurbarán primarily practiced it in his early Sevillian period, not only in his well-known monastic series but also in works of private devotion. No one surpasses him in expressing the tenderness and innocence of child saints: ecstatic virgins, very young immaculates, children of the thorn, or adolescent saints represent other charming aspects of his talent. His exceptional technique in representing the tactile values of fabrics and objects places him at a sublime level as a still-life painter. Under his brush, simple objects attain a poetic transcendence (Still Life, 1633, Norton Simon Foundation, Pasadena). His sobriety, expressive power, and plasticity of figures, combined with his evident coloristic skills, position him at the peak of Spanish masters of the Golden Age. Perhaps among them all, he is the one who most deeply moves our modern sensibility.

Issuer: rLzncbwKysPuA9FvrocUKBZUbQGiBBPNk3

Taxon: 2

• culture : Spain, 17th century
• creation date : 1640
• technique : oil on canvas
• artist: Francisco de Zurbarán
• px: 11417 x 8474

NFTokenID: 00081770DB35F371D4D6B9E351DA0CF20D4EBF5F49F78DB9CE957F40042C1EA7

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