Francisco de Zurbaran (1598–1664): San Carmelo

  • Minneapolis Institute of Art
  • ‘This remarkable painting deepens our understanding of Zurbarán’s unparalleled talent, and of the Spanish Baroque more broadly’
    Katie Luber, Director and President of the Minneapolis Institute of Art
     
    It was such a privilege to handle this work by Francisco Zurbarán, a shining star in the firmament of Spanish art and one of the most celebrated painters of Baroque Europe, with my long-time colleague and friend, Tim Warner-Johnson.
     
    The canvas was commissioned by the Mercederian Order of Seville for the ‘Sala De Profundis’, a highly important space in the monastery, where deceased monks were prepared for burial. It was conceived as a pair to the artist’s Saint Serapion, now in the collection of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. 
     
    The present picture, which was removed from the monastery following Napoleon’s invasion of Spain in the early nineteenth century, was rediscovered only in 2010. I truly hope that its acquisition by the Minneapolis Institute of Art will make the possibility of a reunion (even a temporary one) with its iconic pair possible in the near future. 
  • FRANCISCO DE ZURBARÁN

    1598–1664

     

    San Carmelo

    1628–1630

    Oil on canvas

    116 x 91.5 cm

     

    PROVENANCE

    • Commissioned in 1628 for the ‘de profundis’ chapel in the Merced Calzada Convent, Seville

    • Depósito del Alcázar, Sevilla, 1810, room 7, n. 228

    • Antonio Ferré Paris collection, Barcelona, until his death in 1947

    • His heirs, Barcelona, until 2015

    • Art market, Barcelona, until 2021, when acquired by the present owner

  • FRANÇOIS GIRARDON,  château de versailles →