Francisco de Zurbarán: Master of Light Leaps from Shadows

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Roderick Conway Morris

Francisco de Zurbarán painted the martyrdom of Saint Serapion in 1628.

ITALY---The Italian art historian Roberto Longhi described Francisco de Zurbarán as “the greatest constructor of form with light, after Caravaggio and before Cézanne.” Longhi’s comment not only acknowledged the 17th-century Spanish artist’s mastery of light as a means to create form in paint, it also hinted at the powerful influence that this almost exclusively religious painter had on the primarily secular art of the 19th and 20th centuries. “Zurbarán,” at the Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara, is the first show dedicated to the artist since the landmark publication of the first volume of Odile Delenda’s catalogue raisonné of the artist’s work in 2009. [link]