Francisco de Zurbarán

Francisco de Zurbarán was born in Fuente de Cantos and trained in Seville. After working in his native province, he returned to the city and by 1629 became its official painter. Religious orders were his principal clients, commissioning individual saints, large cycles and altarpieces.

Seville was a wealthy trading centre connected to the Americas by sea. Monastic commissions operated within this economy. Zurbarán joined carefully observed fabrics and objects with concentrated religious action. Convincing naturalism made a depicted apparition or saint accessible through familiar material forms.

In 1634 he worked in Madrid on mythological paintings for the Buen Retiro palace, so his career extended beyond monasteries. His works also include still lifes and images for private devotion. Demand for his painting diminished in later years; he died in Madrid in 1664.