1639, Francisco de Zurbarán, Saint Francis in Prayer -- Norton Simon Museum (Pasadena)
From the museum label: Diego Velázquez and Francisco de Zurbarán are often described as opposites within 17th-century Spanish art. One was cosmopolitan, the other provincial. One served the courtly elite, the other catered to an ecclesiastical and monastic clientele. One was known for his originality, which propelled him to mythical status; the other was known for disciplined austerity, which would fall out of fashion toward the end of his life and plunge him into poverty. Nevertheless, the two painters had similar origins, as Velázquez's own starkly rendered, single-figure personifications of saints echo the approach taken by Zurbarán in Saint Francis in Prayer. This meditative subject, one to which Zurbarán would return on many occasions, embodies the purity of content and form that gradually set his work apart from that of Velázquez.
1639, Francisco de Zurbarán, Saint Francis in Prayer -- Norton Simon Museum (Pasadena)
From the museum label: Diego Velázquez and Francisco de Zurbarán are often described as opposites within 17th-century Spanish art. One was cosmopolitan, the other provincial. One served the courtly elite, the other catered to an ecclesiastical and monastic clientele. One was known for his originality, which propelled him to mythical status; the other was known for disciplined austerity, which would fall out of fashion toward the end of his life and plunge him into poverty. Nevertheless, the two painters had similar origins, as Velázquez's own starkly rendered, single-figure personifications of saints echo the approach taken by Zurbarán in Saint Francis in Prayer. This meditative subject, one to which Zurbarán would return on many occasions, embodies the purity of content and form that gradually set his work apart from that of Velázquez.