At the Capitoline Museums, Zurbarán's St. Francis from the Saint Louis Art Museum

Until May 15, 2022, the Sala Santa Petronilla at the Capitoline Museums welcomes Saint Francis Contemplates a Skull by Spanish painter Francisco de Zurbarán (Fuente de Cantos, 1598 - Madrid, 1664). The work is in Rome for the first time thanks to a loan from the Saint Louis Art Museum and, in the Room where it was chosen to be installed, this is ideally placed in dialogue with both Caravaggio ’s two canvases the Buona Ventura and Saint John the Baptist and Diego Velázquez’s Portrait of Juan de Córdoba: four masterpieces, completed over a period of about fifty years.

The St. Francis Contemplates a Skull was originally part of an altarpiece kept in the Carmelite church of the College of St. Albert in Seville. The saint is depicted standing in the characteristic Capuchin habit while contemplating a skull that he holds in his hands. The severe and monumental aspect of the composition is accentuated by the strong geometric rigor, the verticality of the hood and the folds of the robe, which falls straight to the ground leaving only the tips of the toes of the bare feet uncovered. The silent dialogue between the saint and the skull symbolizes the passage from life to death, alluding to the fragility of human existence, a recurring theme in Spanish Baroque art and in Counter-Reformation art in general.

The lights and shadows take on a symbolic and spiritual value. The saint, in his ascetic contemplation of the skull, is shown as detached and elusive, immersed in a mystical dimension. The comparison between the Saint Francis from the Saint Louis Art Museum, the two paintings by Caravaggio and the Velázquez from the Pinacoteca Capitolina focuses precisely on the use of light.

The exhibition project Zurbarán in Rome. Saint Francis at the Saint Louis Art Museum between Caravaggio and Velázquez is promoted by Roma Culture - Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali and is curated by Federica Maria Papi and Claudio Parisi Presicce.

Image: Francisco de Zurbarán, Saint Francis Contemplates a Skull (c. 1635; oil on canvas; 91.4 x 30.5 cm; Saint Louis, Saint Louis Art Museum).

At the Capitoline Museums, Zurbarán's St. Francis from the Saint Louis Art Museum

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