Follower of FRANCISCO DE ZURBARÁN (Fuente de Cantos, Badajoz, 1598 - Madrid, 1664); first half of the XVII century. "Saint Catherine of Siena. Oil o

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Nov 3, 2021

Set Reminder 2021-11-03 08:00:00 2021-11-03 08:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : OLD MASTERS https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/setdart-auction-house/old-masters-7786
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• Lot Description
  Follower of FRANCISCO DE ZURBARÁN (Fuente de Cantos, Badajoz, 1598 - Madrid, 1664); first half of the XVII century. "Saint Catherine of Siena. Oil on canvas. Relined. Measurements: 108 x 89.5 cm; 132 x 112 cm (frame). This work faithfully follows the aesthetic models established by Zurbarán, in the work that is in the House Museum of Lope de Vega. This same composition was repeated by Zurbarán on numerous occasions, in fact, the same theme and composition can be found in a painting in the Cathedral of Palencia. Iconographically, the saint only shows her white habit. Situated in profile and kneeling with her hands clasped in prayerful attitude. The saint appears pious, showing the faithful her sores on her hands, but with a hieratic and serene pose, contemplating the body of the crucified Christ. Catherine was born around 290 in the bosom of a noble family of Alexandria. Endowed with a great intelligence, she soon stood out for her extensive studies, which placed her on the same level as the greatest poets and philosophers of the time. One night Christ appeared to her and she decided, at that moment, to consecrate her life to him and to consider herself his fiancée, in a sort of mystical marriage. When Emperor Maximian came to Alexandria to preside over a great pagan feast, Catherine took the opportunity to try to convert him to Christianity, which aroused his anger. To test her, Maximian imposed on her a philosophical debate with fifty wise men whom she would try to convert. Catherine succeeded, provoking the emperor's wrath. The emperor had the sages executed, but not before proposing to the saint that she marry one of them, to which she flatly refused. The emperor then ordered her to be tortured using a machine with spiked wheels. Miraculously, the wheels broke when they touched Catalina's body, so she finally had to be beheaded. Francisco de Zurbarán trained in Seville, where he was a disciple of Pedro Díaz de Villanueva between 1614 and 1617. During this period he would have the opportunity to meet Pachecho and Herrera, and to establish contacts with his contemporaries Velázquez and Cano, apprentices like him in Seville at the time. After several years of diverse apprenticeship, Zurbarán returned to Badajoz without undergoing the Sevillian guild examination. He settled in Llerena between 1617 and 1628, a city where he received commissions both from the municipality and from various convents and churches in Extremadura. In 1629, by unusual proposal of the Municipal Council, Zurbarán settled definitively in Seville, beginning the most prestigious decade of his career. He received commissions from all the religious orders present in Andalusia and Extremadura, and was finally invited to the court in 1934, perhaps at the suggestion of Velázquez, to participate in the decoration of the great hall of the Buen Retiro. Back in Seville, Zurbarán continued to work for the court and for various monastic orders. In 1958, probably moved by the difficulties of the Sevillian market, he moved to Madrid. During this last period of his production, he painted canvases of private devotion of small format and refined execution. Zurbarán was a painter of simple realism, excluding grandiloquence and theatricality from his work, and we can even find some clumsiness when solving the technical problems of geometric perspective, despite the perfection of his drawing in anatomies, faces and objects. His severe compositions, rigorously ordered, reach an exceptional level of pious emotion. With respect to tenebrism, the painter practiced it especially in his first Sevillian period. No one surpasses him in the way of expressing the tenderness and candor of children, young virgins and adolescent saints. His exceptional technique also allowed him to represent the tactile values of canvases and objects, which makes him an exceptional still life painter.
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