ABSTRACT

Ever since the nineteenth century, when the painting of Zurbaran was retrieved for the history of art as a worthy object of study and admiration, few painters have epitomized in the public's mind the art and essence of their native country more than he has. His religious images have been regarded as the perfect visual expression of the piety of Spanish society in his day, and of the severe asceticism of its religious institutions. Zurbaran was born in the small village of Fuente de Cantos in 1598, into a shopkeeper's family. Nothing is known about his beginnings as a student of painting, but they must have been inconsequential, given the artistic level that could be expected in his hometown. The intense realism of the Crucified Christ is another characteristic aspect of Zurbaran's art, and a very distinctive note in this painting.