.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The present painting and the following lot have been in the possession of the family of the current owners for over one hundred years, and therefore, unavailable to Zurbarán scholars. José Gudiol, in his 1977 monograph on the artist, noted that in the nineteenth century both paintings were in an unidentified monastery in Lima, Peru, and although he does not actually date them, they are included among a group of paintings by Zurbarán of similar dimensions datable to circa 1641-58. An earlier dating of circa 1630-5 can also be made by comparison with Zurbarán's Saint Cyril of Constantinople, Saint Peter Thomas (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) and Saint Francis standing with a Skull (St. Louis Art Museum), which are datable to after 1634 and measure approximately 36 x 12in. (see the catalogue of the exhibition, Zurbarán, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and the Grand Palais, Paris, 1987-8, pp. 136-41, nos. 16-8, illustrated).
By 1640 the market for ecclesiastical commissions in Seville had collapsed, due to the unsettled social and political climate that followed the outbreak of war between France and Spain five years earlier, and except perhaps for the Carthusian Monastery at Las Cuevas, Zurbáran was never again asked to produce a major series of paintings for a Sevillian religious order. To compensate for the loss of this important patronage, Zurbarán increasingly turned to producing paintings for export to the Spanish colonies in America, which the artist would consign to a ship captain to sell on the other side of the Atlantic. On his return to Seville, the captain would remit the proceeds to the artist minus his fee. Paintings such as these were often made on speculation although specific commissions were also received, and the present lot and its companion may have been ordered in this manner. By the late 1630s Zurbarán had established a strong clientele in South America, and in 1647 he received an order from the Abbess of the Convent of La Encarnacion in the city of Los Reyes (Lima) which included twenty-five life-size images of virgin saints (Archivo de Protocolos, Seville, oficio, 14, cited in López Martínez, Desde Martinéz Montanes hasta Pedro Rolán, 1932, p. 224). In 1649 a further contract with Argentine patrons included the production of fifteen pictures of 'Virgin Martyrs', fifteen 'Kings and Famous Men', twenty-four life-size 'Saints and Patriachs' and nine 'Dutch landcapes' (see M.L. Caturla, Zurbarán exporta a Buenos Aires, Anales del Instituto de Arte Americano e Investigaciones Estéticas, 4, 1951, pp. 27-30).
The subject of the present painting and the following lot are uncertain, as is the subject of another painting of similar size by the artist, which is described by Gudiol simply as 'A mother imploring a saint to cure her son' (Gudiol, op. cit., p. 115, no. 471). In Zurbarán's Our Lady of Ransom bestowing the Habit of the Mercedarians on Saint Peter Nolasco (Duke of Dalmacia collection, Saint-Amans-Spult), also datable to circa 1641-58, Saint Peter Nolasco wears a strikingly similar garb to the young gentleman in the present lot, and his pose, with his hat on the ground beside him, is almost the same although reversed.
By 1640 the market for ecclesiastical commissions in Seville had collapsed, due to the unsettled social and political climate that followed the outbreak of war between France and Spain five years earlier, and except perhaps for the Carthusian Monastery at Las Cuevas, Zurbáran was never again asked to produce a major series of paintings for a Sevillian religious order. To compensate for the loss of this important patronage, Zurbarán increasingly turned to producing paintings for export to the Spanish colonies in America, which the artist would consign to a ship captain to sell on the other side of the Atlantic. On his return to Seville, the captain would remit the proceeds to the artist minus his fee. Paintings such as these were often made on speculation although specific commissions were also received, and the present lot and its companion may have been ordered in this manner. By the late 1630s Zurbarán had established a strong clientele in South America, and in 1647 he received an order from the Abbess of the Convent of La Encarnacion in the city of Los Reyes (Lima) which included twenty-five life-size images of virgin saints (Archivo de Protocolos, Seville, oficio, 14, cited in López Martínez, Desde Martinéz Montanes hasta Pedro Rolán, 1932, p. 224). In 1649 a further contract with Argentine patrons included the production of fifteen pictures of 'Virgin Martyrs', fifteen 'Kings and Famous Men', twenty-four life-size 'Saints and Patriachs' and nine 'Dutch landcapes' (see M.L. Caturla, Zurbarán exporta a Buenos Aires, Anales del Instituto de Arte Americano e Investigaciones Estéticas, 4, 1951, pp. 27-30).
The subject of the present painting and the following lot are uncertain, as is the subject of another painting of similar size by the artist, which is described by Gudiol simply as 'A mother imploring a saint to cure her son' (Gudiol, op. cit., p. 115, no. 471). In Zurbarán's Our Lady of Ransom bestowing the Habit of the Mercedarians on Saint Peter Nolasco (Duke of Dalmacia collection, Saint-Amans-Spult), also datable to circa 1641-58, Saint Peter Nolasco wears a strikingly similar garb to the young gentleman in the present lot, and his pose, with his hat on the ground beside him, is almost the same although reversed.