Zurbaran, Francisco de

Zurbaran, Francisco de

Zurbaran, Francisco de (b. 1598, Fuente de Cantos, d. 1664, Madrid) Spanish
painter, born at Fuente de Cantos and active mainly in Seville. He trained
there 1614-17 and after a period at Llerena near his birthplace returned in
1629 as town painter. In 1634-35 he was in Madrid working for Philip IV on a
series of ten pictures on The Labors of Hercules and a large
historical scene, The Defense of Cadiz (all now in the Prado,
Madrid), but apart from these pictures, a few portraits, and some masterly
still lifes, he devoted himself almost entirely to religious works. He worked
for churches and monasteries over a wide area of southern Spain and his
paintings were also exported to South America.

His
compositionally simple and emotionally/direct altarpieces, combining austere
naturalism with mystical intensity, made him an ideal Counter-Reformation
painter. The most characteristic of his works are the single figures of monks
and saints in meditation or prayer, most of which seem to have been executed in
the 1630s. The figures are usually depicted against a plain background,
standing out with massive physical presence. Many of these monumentally solemn
figures are conceived in great series, such as The Members of the
Mercedarian Order (Academy, Madrid), or The Carthusian Saints
(Cadiz Museum). But there are single pictures of the same kind. He painted
numerous pictures of St Francis, for example (two in the National
Gallery, London), and a number of virgin saints.

Towards
the end of his career, Zurbaran's work lost something of its power and
simplicity as he tried to come to terms with the less ascetic style of Murillo,
who in the 1640s overtook him as the most popular painter in Seville. In 1658
he moved to Madrid, where he spent his final years. His son Juan (1620-49) is
known from a few still-life paintings.

Список литературы

Для подготовки
данной раaоты aыли использованы материалы с сайта http://www.ibiblio.org/louvre/paint/