Francisco de Zurbarán

Francisco de Zurbarán (1598 - 1664) is a painter century of Spanish gold . Contemporary and friend of Vélasquez, Zurbarán is distinguished in religious paintings - where its art reveals a great visual force and deep a Mysticisme - and he becomes a emblematic artist of the Counter-Reformation. Initially very marked by Caravage, its austere and dark style evolves/moves to approach the Masters mannerists Italy NS. Its representations move away from the Réalisme of Vélasquez and its compositions are cleared up in tons more acid.

Biography

Early genius

Francisco de Zurbarán is baptized on November 7th 1598 with Fuente de Cantos (Badajoz). Two other great painters of the Siècle of Gold will be born shortly after: Vélasquez (1599 - 1660) and Alonso Cano (1601 - 1667).

At fourteen years, Zurbarán is placed in training with Seville, in the workshop of the painter Pedro Diaz de Villanueva (1564-1654), where Alonso Cano will join it in 1616. Its training finishes in 1617, year when he marries Maria Páez.

He lives then in Llerena (Estrémadure), where are born his/her children, Maria, Juan (who will become painter and die during the great plague of 1649) and Isabel Paula.

After the death of its wife, it remarie towards 1625 with Beatriz de Morales. We know that it is already known in 1622, since, by contract, it is committed painting a Retable for a church of its birthplace.

In 1626, it signs in front of notary an new agreement with the community of the Preaching friars of the Dominican Ordre of San Pablo de Real, with Seville: it must carry out blackjack tables in eight month. And it is in 1627 that it paints the Christ in Cross , work admired at a point such by its contemporaries that the Municipal council of Seville proposes to him to come to settle in this city in 1629.

In this table, the impression of relief is seizing. The Christ is nailed on a cross with badly squared wood. The linen white, luminous, which girds the size to him, with its draped erudite and already Baroque, contrast dramatically with the flexible and well formed muscles of the body. The fine face is inclined on the right shoulder. The suffering seems exceeded and leaves room to an ultimate dream of Résurrection, last thought of a promised life whose body, tortured either but already glorious, is made the sign.

As for the Crucifixion of Vélasquez (painted towards 1630, stiffer and more symmetrical), the feet are nailed here separately. At that time, of the sometimes monumental works representations of the Crucifixion and in particular number of nails dispute. For example the Revelations of Holy Brigitte, who spoke about four nails. In addition, after the decrees tridentins, the spirit of the Counter-Reformation is opposed to the great settings in scene and rather directs the artists towards representations of Christ only. Lastly, many theologists support that the body of Jesus and that of Marie could be only perfect. Zurbarán adopts these lessons, and is affirmed at twenty-nine years like an undeniable Master.

The Master sévillan

Always saying pintor ymagineria (painter of images, statues), Zurbarán signs an new agreement in 1628 with the Couvent of Nuestra Señora of Merced Calzada (Notre-Dame of Fitted Mercy). It then comes to settle with Seville with its family and the members of her workshop. It is there that it paints Saint Sérapion , one of the martyrs of the Ordre of Mercy, died in 1240, most probably after being tortured by English pirates.

the monks Mercédaires (pertaining to the Order of Mercy), in addition to the traditional wishes, pronounced a “wish of redemption or blood” which committed them to give their life for the repurchase of the prisoners in danger to lose their faith.

Zurbarán manages to express the horror without representation of only one blood drops. Here, it is not any more the divine sleep preceding Resurrection. The half-opened mouth does not let escape a cry of pain, it means the paroxystic overwhelming pressure, it says in a breath, simply and terribly, that it is too much to be able to continue to live.

the large white coat, almost in Trompe-l'oeil, occupies most of the table. If the site of the face is withdrawn, the relationship between the entire surface and that of this vast white space is exactly the Golden section.

Proclaiming itself “main painter of this city of Seville”, Zurbarán attracts himself the jealousy of some, of which Alonzo Cano, with which Zurbarán will not want any. Refusing to pass the examinations which would give him right to the title, it estimates that its work and the recognition of large has more value than that of some more or less turned sour members of the corporation of the painters. It finds its silent partners in many noble families of Andalusian patrons and the large convents which they protect, like for the Jésuites.

National glory

In 1634, it accomplishes a voyage to Madrid. This stay is determining in the evolution of its painting. It finds his friend sévillan Diego Vélasquez, of which it contemplates works. It can also see works of Italian painters working at the court of Spain, like Angelo Nardi and Guido Reni. Zurbarán, consequently, gives up the Ténébrisme of its beginnings as to its inclinations of Caravagisme (which one can see an example in particular in the faces of the teenagers in the right part of the Exposition of the body of holy Bonaventure ). Its ciels will become clearer, tons them less contrasted.

Equipped with the title of “Painter of the King”, it returns to paint in Llerena for the Notre-Dame church of the Grenade. By devotion personal with the Virgin Mary, it offers to work without being paid. The orders become increasingly numerous: Nuestra Señora of Defensión, Chartreuse (Cartuja) of Sherry of Frontera, Romance the San church of Seville.

Inside the grounds, on banks of the Guadalquivir, Seville is one of the large European ports. The city saw trade with Americas. The Galion S bring gold, and set out again with the Spanish products, and between good of other things, of works of Article One knows that in 1638, Zurbarán claims the payment of a sum which is due to him to Lima.

His wife, Beatriz, die in 1639. It is this year that it paints Christ with Emmaüs (Museum of the Art schools of Mexico City), and Saint François in extase . In 1641, it remarie with Mariana de Quadros (woman of Juan), which dies shortly after.

In January 1643, the count-duke of Olivares, up to that point minister and favorite of Philippe IV, is exiled. He had supported the Andalusian artists much. This political crisis is added to a deceleration of the marketing activity of Seville. The orders of tables thus will drop, but Zurbarán is always appreciated. In 1644, it marries Leonor de Tordera. It has twenty-eight years and Zurbarán forty six. They will have six children.

Since 1636 at least, Zurbarán signed from the contracts with South America. In 1647, a Peruvian convent orders thirty-eight paintings to him, including twenty-four Vierges life size. On the US market, it puts profane tables also on sale, which compensates for the rarefaction of the Andalusian customers - whose Murillo another painter sévillan (1618-1682) will be him also victim, and who explains the departure of Alonzo Cano for Madrid.

These orders are important since it is known, by a contract found, that Zurbarán sold with Buenos Aires “fifteen virgins martyrdoms, fifteen famous kings and men, twenty-four saints and patriarchs” (all specified in life size), and even nine landscapes Dutch. Zurbarán could thus be allowed to maintain a very important workshop with apprentices and assistants. His/her Juan son, known to be a good painter of Bodegones (scenes of kitchen, of market and dead nature) probably works for his father. Beautiful a Still life of Juan Zurbarán is with the museum of Kiev.

With the beginning of the year 1650, Zurbarán accomplishes a new voyage to Madrid. It paints then in Sfumato , as testify the admirable face to it to the Virgin in the Annonciation (1638) to the Musée of Grenoble and Christ carrying her Cross of 1653 (cathedral of Orleans). In 1658, the four great painters of Andalusia, Zurbarán, Vélasquez, Alonso Cano and Murillo, are in Madrid. Zurbarán testifies for the investigation which will lead to the entry of Vélasquez in the Ordre of Santiago. From this time go back the veil to Veronique (Valladolid, National museum), the rest during the escape in Egypt (Museum of Budapest) and Saint François with knees with a death's-head (Madrid, collection Plácido Domingo). His/her faithful friend Vélasquez dies in 1660.

August 27th, 1664, Francisco de Zurbarán dies in Madrid.

Historical context, silent partners and topics. Genius in its diversity

Conventual esthetics and life in Seville at the beginning of the 17th century

In 1600, there was thirty-seven Couvent S in Seville. In the twenty-five years which followed, fifteen new houses were founded. The convents are large patrons, very demanding as for the composition and with the quality of works. Thus, by contract, Zurbarán accepts that tables are turned over to him if they do not give satisfaction.

The monks and nuns were very sensitive to the esthetic dimension of the representations, and they thought that the Beau t-piece was more stimulative for the rise in the heart than the mediocrity. These Abbot S and abbesses was generally cultivated people, érudites, refined, with the very sure judgments of taste.

In the church, there is almost always a Retable comprising scenes of the life of Christ. In addition, during the 17th century, the Sacristie S - where are arranged the church vestments - are more and more richly decorated. One places also tables in the Cloître, the refectory, the cells and often medieval works are destroyed. In the Library and the room of the chapter, one rather finds the life of the founder and the important personalities of the Ordre.

These requirements being those of all the convents, the painters of second order could make " séries" , but the recognized Masters renewed, looked further into their art and collected the most orders.

The Religious orders patrons of Zurbarán

The Order of Mercy ( Merced )

The Ordre of Notre-Dame of Mercy is founded by Saint Pierre of Nolasque in 1218 during the Reconquête. This one is canonized in 1628. We saw that it is for these Mercédaires of Merced Calzada (Thank you Fitted) that Zurbarán painted Appearance of Pierre saint to saint Pierre de Nolasque . In spite of his desire of going to Rome, Pierre de Nolasque could not go there. Saint Pierre would have appeared to him, crucifié, and would have said to him: “I came to you since you cannot come to me”.

He also paints for the convent of Merced Descalza (Thank you Exposed), in Seville also.

The college franciscain Saint-Bonaventure

The convent Franciscain was one of the largest religious houses of Seville. Its college was the Spanish center of theological studies for this Order. In 1629, Zurbarán continues the cycle of representations of the life of Bonaventure de Bagnorea - the “seraphic doctor” - begun with Francisco de Herrera the Old man, and in particular the visit of saint Thomas d' Aquin with saint Bonaventure (table destroyed in Berlin in 1945, and whom one should not confuse with the Saint Bonaventure receiving the visit of saint Thomas d' Aquin of the church San Francisco el Grande in Madrid).

Chartreuse de Jerez

Cartuja Nuestra Señora of Defensión de Jerez of Frontera, founded in 1476, owes its name with a miraculous appearance of the Vierge in 1370, which would have clarified the place where the Spaniards were going to fall into an ambush set-up by the Moors. Zurbarán paints eleven paintings for the retable of the Maître-autel. Ordered in 1636, they are completed in 1639-1640. Among those, the Battle of Sherry (New York, Metropolitan Museum off Art). Four tables are with the Museum of Grenoble: the Annunciation (1638), the Circumcision , Worship of the shepherds , Worship of the magi .

the Ténébrisme of the first years is abandoned even if the shades remain very frank, and the colors are richer. Already one can notice the extreme attention that Zurbarán will carry to the objects in the basket covered with a white linen, which is in the foreground on the left and which constitutes in oneself remarkable a Still life. Around the neck of Marie, the transparent veil constitutes a great lesson of painting.

Hiéronymites de Guadalupe

Founded at the 15th century, this Order was very related to the royal capacity, and was very thus often richly equipped. Indeed, according to a belief, a statue of Marie would have been found by a young shepherd in 1320, where it had been hidden by the Christians Visigoths in order to avoid his Profanation. Pèlerinage S will take place and a Sanctuaire is raised, under the protection of the king of Castille Alphonse XI. The Virgin of Guadalupe would have ensured the success of the Croisade against the Moors.

Zurbarán carries out eight tables for the sacristy and three for the vault contiguous to the sacristy. These eleven tables are remained in place. Among them, Holy Jerome whipped by the angels and the temptation of saint Jerome .

The Dominican ones of Seville

The convent San Pablo el Real

In 1626, the convent San Pablo el Real orders to him blackjack tables (fourteen of the life of Saint Dominique, seven of large the Doctorss of the Church. The first four doctors were Ambroise of Milan, Jerome de Stridon, Augustin d' Hippone and Gregoire Large the. The Dominicains add Dominique de Guzmán, Thomas d' Aquin and Bonaventure. Only five tables were preserved.

The Holy college Thomas

As much of great Orders at the 17th century in Seville, the Dominican ones found a college of teaching beside their convent. The goal was to contribute to the propagation of the ideas affirmed with the Concile of Thirty. Let us note that Dominican Spanish had already colleges, makes some since the Reconquest. For the high altar, Zurbarán paints its large Triomphe of saint Thomas d' Aquin (5,20 m X 3,46 m, currently with the Musée of the Art schools of Seville), table which Soult had seized to offer it to the Napoleon Museum, reserving the Saint Andre (Budapest, Szépmüveszeti Muzeum) for his own collection!

In this table on a bottom of sky of storm, holy André is held upright in front of the cross of his torment, meditating on a holy book. Its face and its right hand are treated in a realistic way very . Three glares of light illuminate in oblique the top of the table: the right temple, the beard, the book. A large ocher coat, with the very simple folds, covers the body and comes to moderate with its soft tonality contrasts of the upper part of the table.

Santo Domingo de Portacoeli

Of this convent destroyed at the 19th century, one preserves at the Museum of the Art schools of Seville, a Bienheureux Henri Suso , Dominican German. The disciple of Maître Eckhart is in extase, upright, engraving on his chest with a stylet the name of Jesus. Behind him, scenes of its life are located in a beautiful clear landscape.

Royal orders

In 1634, Zurbarán is with Madrid. It is invited by the king to join three other painters - of which his/her friend Vélasquez - to decorate Salón with los Reinos of the new royal palace of Buen Retiro.

On the twelve military victories of the reign, it represents the Defense of Cadiz against the English. In addition it must illustrate ten episodes of the life of Hercules, ancestor mythical of the Spanish branch of the Habsbourg. These tables with the glory of Philippe IV and Olivares do not constitute the best of its work.

Private individuals

If one puts aside the representations of Virgins martyrdoms in question further, the works intended for the private individuals are more repetitive than those which were to take seat in the convents. Jonathan Brown writes pleasantly that, taking into account their number, “the workshop of the artist was to some extent a factory paintings excessively pious women” (Catalog of the exposure of 1988 to the Large palace, p. 36).

Theology mariale in Seville: the Immaculate Conception

The Immaculate Conception was the preferred topic of Sévillans of the time. One disputed then what was not yet a Dogme. Had Marie been designed without on it the Original sin weighing? Or was it, like any human being, struck as of the design, of the original sin, to be about it then purified by God whereas it was still in the center of her mother? The doctrines of the Immaculate Conception were opposed to the doctrines Sanctification. The people interfered themselves so much so that there was, in the streets of Seville, almost a riot because Dominican preached the doctrines of Sanctification. The Spanish sovereigns asked the Pape to take party for the doctrines of the Immaculate Conception. Works of Zurbarán illustrate this position which will become a dogma only at the 19th century.

Torments and decency: the Virgins martyrdoms

Contrary to the Rhenish painters who seem to think that the sight of blood is necessary to the rise in the heart, Zurbarán does not take pleasure in exhiber wounds and it is only with decency that the undergone torments are pointed out. It is not question of awaking the sadistic disorders impulses of the spectator.

Zurbarán is not dolorist: the pain does not have in oneself a moral value. It is necessary, on this subject, to return on its Saint Sérapion .

the table does not represent the butchery which of the English companion of Alphonse IX had to be the martyr. The painter seeks to cause the Empathie. The Saint Sérapion of Zurbarán offers to us the significant demonstration of a heart which gives up the life and is given up with more life: not having more the force to exist, Sérapion has it still that to entrust to larger than him, that to hope? What does he think, if it can still think? A work sanguinolente would have shown us only the degree of spite of of torture, not without a certain kindness. The trap of the Voyeurisme is avoided.

Continuing harmoniously to marry its pictorial research and its spiritual meditation, Zurbarán is devoted to the topic, very appreciated in Seville at the beginning of the century, of the Virgins martyrdoms. The holy ones of Zurbarán are not any more simple presenters of instruments of torture taking of the conventional installations in tables finally rather insipid. However their expression does not translate what had to be the terrible moments.

Undoubtedly one never liked to present, in the visual arts, the physical suffering of the women, who however were actually as much torture victims that the men. The few exceptions which one can find in the medieval statuary do not show us such woman, but the pecheress, even a symbol (the Luxure punished in Enfer, for example). Perhaps the artist yields it with the desire of the women not to be not represented when they are not main any more of their maintenance… There would be an esthetic and psychoanalytical study to make on the sexual difference in the iconology of the Martyrologe.

Holy Agathe

Following the Council of Thirty, the cardinal Paleotti recommends to the painters to represent seven holy, of which holy Agathe. The Roman laws prohibiting to kill the virgin girls, a sicilian prefect, not being able to even allure nor to force the virginity miraculeusement preserved of holy Agathe, makes him cut the centres and throws it in prison. There, holy Pierre appears with the young girl and cures his wounds. Because of the nature of its torment it appears only on very few tables of the Century of gold. However, the Order of Mercy and the convents hospital require the image of it: holy Agathe, owner of the nurses, pious auxiliary of lactation, which is that can bring the subsistence to weakest and poorest.

Paul Valéry admired the Sainte Agathe of the Museum Fabre (Montpellier), which perhaps came from the Couvent of the Merced Calzada . Hanchée like the Madonna of the 14th French century, the young girl presents her centres on a plate, without ostentation, in a gesture of simple and worthy offering. Very contrasted, without modelled, work can be the period tenebrist of Zurbarán.

Holy Marguerite

This table is quite different from the precedent, although the eyes, the features of the face let some critical think that it is about the same model as for the Sainte Agathe . Zurbarán represents Sainte Marguerite under the features of a very elegant shepherdess. The stick which it holds with the hand, which could pass for a crook if it were not surmounted by a hook, the worrying presence of the dragon on the left, however lead us to think that there was a tragedy.

“This charming shepherdess, if glossy in her setting, appears to leave a scene of theater. Indeed rather than by the processions or the sacramental cars represented on the tanks of the Corpus during the week of the Corpus Christi to which the historians often refer, Zurbarán perhaps took as a starting point the comedias of Santas played in the corrales of Seville. Heroins are always very young people and beautiful like the Sainte Jeanne of Tirso de Molina or the Sainte Marguerite of Enciso. Their beauty is described like a godsend, a reflection of the heart which radiates mysteriously and attracts all the hearts irresistibly. ” (Catalog of the Zurbarán exposure by Odile Delenda of 1988, p. 275).

It is tasty to see an artist of the 17th century, of which some would like to make pass spirituality for religious bigotry, offering this Navy of Antioche to us which anticipates these other shepherdesses who are sometimes the virgins martyrdoms of the baroque Bavarian, such as one can see some, for example in the church of the Vierzehnheiligen - while taking to the treatment of the fabrics the care of a Memling in the mystical marriage of Holy Catherine (Museum Memling, old Holy Hospital Jean).

The Master of dead natures

The Master of the Voile of Veronique of Stockholm does not think of déchoir by painting the simple sheep with the dependant legs of the Agnus Dei of San Diego (Fine Gallery Arts). Zurbarán appears an animalist great painter there.

The work of the Virgin

He also excels in the dead natural where he shows an attention respectful (and almost affectionate) with regard to objects modest but equipped with a value symbolic system, so much so that Antonió Bonnet-Correa stresses that “its dead natures have a density, a plenitude if thorough that, even when they are only one of the elements of a composition, their presence is essential as much as the principal scene” (q.v., Encyclopædia Universalis , 1996).

“Throughout its career, Zurbarán attaches a care particular to the representation of the objects. Since the invaluable cup with a pink appearing in its first tables, miraculous cure of happy Regnaud of Orleans (Seville, Magdalena) to the last fruits on a tin plate of the Virgin, the Child and Holy Jean , gone back to 1662 (Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes)” (Odile Delenda, Catalog exposure of 1988, p.171).

“the description of these nature died in religious scenes is interpreted like that of the symbols showing qualities of the characters: thus the workbasket is the often repeated emblem of the labor of the Virgin. ” (Odile Delenda, Catalogs Zurbarán exposure of 1988, p. 271).

These workbaskets can be seen in the Annonciation of Grenoble, the Virgin child in extase (New York, Metropolitan Museum off Art), the Jesus Child being wounded with the crown of spines known as the house of Nazareth (Cleveland, Museum off Art).

The table of the Carthusian monks

The Saint Hugues with the refectory of the Carthusian monks (Seville, Museum of the Art schools) places to us in front of a vast still life. The verticals of the bodies of the Carthusian monks, Holy Hugues and the page, are cut by a table in L, covered with a tablecloth almost falling down with ground. The page is in the center. The arched body of the bishop on the right and the return of the table on the left, remove any feeling of rigidity which could be born from this austere scene. In front of each Carthusian monk the bowls out of terra cotta are laid out containing the meat and of the pieces of bread. Two terra cotta jugs, a turned over bowl and two abandoned knives (they were to be used to cut the meat) help to break a provision which could be monotonous if it were not already softened owing to the fact that the objects have a diversity of shifts compared to the edge of the table. Work gains there in life: it is many men who are here, and not angels geometricians.

The bodegones

The Bodegones indicate the scenes of dead kind and the natural of the Spanish Masters .

Only still life signed and dated is that of Norton Simon Fondation (Pasadena): four lemons in a dish, four crowned oranges their sheets and flowers, a cup posed on a metal dish, with a pink at the edge. Two other died natures, identical, strike by their strangeness (Musée of Prado to Madrid and Musée of the Art schools with Barcelona). Here, four vases are aligned, two rest on tin dishes at the ends. Three others are simple terra cotta. The vase of left is out of gilded metal. The objects are laid out on the same plan. No imagination distracts the attention from the spectator and no symmetry wearies it. Although there is nothing behind the objects, that the bottom sinks, it is an impression of simplicity and not of vacuity which emerges from work: Asceticism without severity, rigor without rigidity.

The meal with Emmaüs

It is the moment when Cléophas and its companion recognize Christ. All is made, in this very dark table in addition, to draw the attention on the meal symbolic system. On the very white tablecloth, the objects (two plates, a jug, a piece of bread) are almost aligned, as in the meal of the Chartreux - process whose Zurbarán uses to underline the hieratic character of a scene. But the spot, whiter still than the tablecloth, of the crumb of the bread which has just broken Christ attracts the glance. Jesus is erased in the shade; its body ressuscity, which has reality only for its contemporaries, leaves room to universal and timeless effect of the Transsubstantiation. On the table, the objects of the still life draw their intensity from tone of this glare which relegates the light of environment coming from the left.

Conclusion

Zurbarán was famous before thirty years, especially thanks to the cycle of the Merced Calzada , whose Alonzo Cano, main painter since 1626, had refused the order.

There remained very snuffed after its death, and its fame largely exceeded the borders of Spain. The older brother of Napoleon, unpopular the Joseph Bonaparte, that the Spaniards as well as possible called “the intruding king” or in the worst case the “Pepe botellas”, made send to Paris, for the Museum Napoleon, many major works of Zurbarán. Several generals of Empire, and the marshal Soult, drew from the tables gathered in Seville after the closing of the convents of men.

But why Zurbarán? Rather what the greed of the new rich person, couldn't one evoke “at the men in general left the people and without artistic culture, a spontaneous attraction towards this simple, cordial and direct painting, and who could awake at some of the principal amateurs, the marshal Soult, the general of Armagnac, certain memories of their Languedocien or Gascon childhood”? (Paul Guinard, Treasures of Spanish painting , Paris, Museum of Decorative Arts, 1963).

From 1835 to 1837, Louis-Philippe sends in Spain the baron Isidore Taylor, Royal police chief of the French Theater, to join together a collection of works there, dispersed thereafter. Represented by 121 numbers, Zurbarán was appreciated however less than Murillo. It was judged only one romantic point of view of, and one especially saw in him the “Spanish Caravage”, painter of the monks. It is the Saint François with knees with a death's-head which held the attention.

“Monks of Zurbaran, white Carthusian monks who, into the shade,

Slip quiet on the flagstones of deaths,

Murmuring Pater and Ave without number,

Which crime did you expiez by so great remorses?

Phantom tonsures, torturers with pale face,

to treat it thus, which thus your body made? ”

writing Théophile Gautier in her collection España of 1845. And, curiously, this Zurbarán, dark painter with the tormented faith, are also that of Élie Faure:

“the sterility of Spain east in these sepulchral cloisters where the meditation is exerted on death's-heads and books covered with skin. The gray or white dresses fall single-breasted like shrouds. Around, the vaults are thick, the cold flagstones, the dead day. Hardly that and there a red carpet, a blue ribbon animates this aridity. Pleasure to paint appears in the dry bread, the raw roots of the meal taken in silence, a hand, ground the face of a corpse, a gray money pall. But these spectral faces, this clothing chechmates, this stripped wood, these naked bones, these ebony crosses where not a reflection does not tremble, these yellow books with red section arranged and Nets as the hours which cut out the life in dull exercises until the last moment, take the aspect of an architecture relentless which the faith even imposes on figure by prohibiting all to him that is not a rigid line, a naked surface, a precise and hard volume. A monk who weighs so extremely on his knees that it with the air of raising a stone of a sepulchre with his drawn up head. Those which distribute or take food cover the need to live of a solemnity which penetrates the tablecloth, glasses, the knives and food. Those which are on the funeral bed print with the life which surrounds them the stiffness of death. ” ( modern art , republication of 1964, pp. 164-166).

It was necessary well to leave, once at least, the word with those which depreciate Zurbarán. But let us recognize that one could not be unjust any more towards this great painter!

Another glance, fortunately, is posed at the 20th century on the Andalusian Master. Forgetting the aspect pietist, exaggeratedly underlined, Christian Zervos (1899-1970), which was director of the Cahiers of Art , very large expert of the painting of his time - but also of the Greek art and the prehistoric Art -, editor of the reasoned catalog of the work of Picasso, recognizes that one must allot to Zurbarán a dominating place in Spanish art:

“Greco except, and perhaps Velázquez, of which it is the equal one, if not higher, Zurbarán exceeds all the other Spanish painters. Moreover its work approaches much the current trends of painting. And however its work is not known and is not appreciated with its right measurement. (…) The characteristic of the work of Zurbarán is to offer all that painting can offer of human truth. (…) In general, Zurbarán represents its saints and its monks in the most concise physical life, but sanctified by serious spiritual concern or the desire to approach God. It there forever at his place of terrible feeling. Death itself does not have anything for him effroyable." (Quoted in the Catalog of the exposure of 1988, p. 53).

Zervos speaks about the topicality of the painting of Zurbarán. Indeed, if one looks at well the treatment of the clothing of holy André (Budapest), of coat of Holy Joseph ( the walk of Joseph Saint and the Child Jesus , chief of work which is in the Saint M3edard's Day church in Paris), of the dress of the Bienheureux Saint Cyrille (Boston), one understands that some speak about a “wanted stylization, first steps even of the abstraction cubist” (Catalog of the exposure of 1988, p. 156). And isn't the still life of the Disciples of Emmaüs close, in its rigor, of the still life in the kettle of Cézanne (Museum of Orsay)?

Like all the Masters, Zurbarán does not give the feeling to be limited by the concern of conforming to waitings of the silent partners. The artists of second order protest high and strong that the genius rests on freedom, and that to be free, it is to obey nobody. Disturbing definition of Freedom which condemns in fact to be made the servant of its Désir S, of its Passion S, even of its Pulsion S. the false artist without Génie, and which does not have even the courage of the talent (what would require work) thinks that the public is held to kneel in front of the seepages unslung of one me hypertrophied. For that it is necessary to oppose the genius of Zurbarán whose real freedom consists in transcending the constraints, the rules, without refusing them, and to transform any requirement into an occasion to create a chief of work. It is this aptitude to control the rules (which control only the spirit poor) within the framework of the creation, which one also finds at Jean Racine.

However, when the tops are reached, it should not be any more question of hierarchy between the large artists. “To note” the geniuses, it would be necessary to be believed higher than them! Best than we have to make is to meditate on works, to try to include/understand the problems which arose for them and to reflect on the echo that their forms in the history of Article could find Greco, Zurbarán, Velazquez, Murillo are not (or more) in competition: each one with its way lays out the glance which we throw on art, but also on the people, on the things. Our world is built by the contemplation of works.

On this point, it is necessary to leave the word to Yves Bottineau (General inspector of the Museums of France, charged with the National museum of the castle of Versailles and Trianon):

“Today, in accordance with a usual movement of balance in the history of arts, certain commentators, into private at least, lower readily Zurbarán by comparison with the poetic ease of Murillo. But Spanish painting is so rich that the homage paid to its larger representatives should not take the form of a classification, prone to the variations of the taste and judgment; it must borrow the ways of enlightened and admiring prudence. Each one of these “large” deserves that one murmurs about it the worms of John Keats at the beginning of Endymion :

“has thing off beauty has joy for ever:

Its loveliness increases; it will never

Not into nothingness…”

(Catalog of the exposure of 1988, p. 55).

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