Great Artworks: Saint Francis in

Meditation by Francisco de Zurburán

A gripping image that describes a model of meditative worship
Saint Francis in Meditation (1635–9) by Francisco de Zurburán. National Gallery, London.
Source Wikimedia Commons

A robed monk kneels, his hands clasped, his fingers interlaced. His
head is raised upwards and his mouth has fallen open. The image is
utterly simply, but it’s effect is complex.

The artist was Francisco de Zurburán (1598–1664), a Spanish painter

who gained popularity with monastic orders in Seville, from whom he
received commissions for many of his paintings.

Zurburán’s style evolved to use a bold form of chiaroscuro — effects of

contrast between light and shadow— known as tenebrism. This is the
use of extreme lighting opposition to heighten the dramatic effect. The
term is derived from the Latin tenebrae, meaning “darkness”. In this
painting of St Francis, the figure is illuminated by a bright light from
the side, contrasted against an unadorned dark background.

The kneeling monk is St Francis of Assisi, the founder of the

Franciscan Order, or the Order of Friars Minor. He was an Italian
preacher whose ascetic lifestyle inspired many followers. By the time of
his death he was widely venerated, and from as early as the 14th
century, scenes from his life had become a popular subject for works of
art.

Zurburán’s gripping image describes an ideal model of meditative and

humble worship.
The painting was made in Spain in around 1635, a period of Catholic
resurgence initiated in response to the Protestant Reformation. In the
work, St Francis wears a brown habit and hold in his hands a human
skull. The inclusion of the skull was popular in Counter-Reformation
art, as a reminder of man’s mortality, a memento mori emblem
— “Remember you must die” — emphasising Heaven, Hell, and
salvation of the soul in the afterlife.

Detail from ‘Saint Francis in Meditation’ by Francisco de Zurburán. National Gallery, London.
Source Wikimedia Commons

Francis of Assisi was born in around 1181. As a youngster he lived a

high-spirited life typical of a wealthy young Italian man. Yet growing
up in such comfort didn’t suit Francis’s temperament and he began to
lose his taste for the worldly life. One day, Francis was praying in a
ruined church when he had a mystical vision of Jesus Christ: “Francis,
Francis, go and repair My house which, as you can see, is falling into
ruins.” Francis sold some cloth from his father’s store to help renovate
the church. Stories like this, about Francis’s veneration of God and his
devotion to the maintenance of Christianity, became strongly linked
with his image in art. Above all, St Francis was an emblem of authentic
worship in a religion wrought with schism.

Francis went on to devote himself to a life of poverty, obtaining a

coarse woolen tunic, tied around his waist with a knotted rope. Gaining
followers through his example, he established the Franciscan Order,
whose monks preached sermons that had at their hearts the story of
the Redemption and the appeal for conversion. The core vows of the
Franciscan friars were to maintain a manner of life consistent with St
Francis, of humility, simplicity, poverty, and prayer.
Detail from ‘Saint Francis in Meditation’ by Francisco de Zurburán. National Gallery, London.
Source Wikimedia Commons

In representations of the praying Francis, not only was he depicted as

an exemplary devotee of Christianity, his image was also used to
promote institutional unity by being shown as a figure of reverence.
Franciscan art tended to endorse an active and emotional engagement
with Christianity in the mold of St Francis who eschewed complex
theological debate for a life of poverty and repentance inspired by
Christ’s example.
Saint Francis in Meditation (1635–9) by Francisco de Zurburán. National Gallery, London.
Source Wikimedia Commons

Symbolic of meditation and devotion, Zurburán painted St Francis in

exquisite isolation. The painting shows an act of purest meditation,
and in doing so produces an invitation to the viewer to partake in
similar contemplative poses.

The depiction of an act of prayer like this assumes the sign of an

individual’s psychological focus on an object of devotion. The gesture,
as it were, points to the object of devotion, and provides a model of
worship that is meditative. As a visual sign, the prayer gesture
advocates a contemplative method of worship, and thereby reflects the
medieval devotional method of meditating at length on stories from the
Gospels.

In this way, Zurburán’s stark painting describes an ideal model of

meditative and humble worship.