Page 24 - Chinese Porcelain in Hambsburg Spain, Early Collections and Trade, Cinta Krahe

Francisco de Zurbarán (1598–1664)
Fancisco de Zurbarán was born in Extremadura, but he was apprenticed to an artist
in Seville in his youth, and he remained in that city for most of his life, becoming
particularly renowned for his paintings of monks and nuns. His Sleeping Child Mary
(fig. 213) reflects mid-seventeenth-century monastic tales of the Virgin’s childhood.
The sleeping Mary is deep in a spiritual dream, dressed in a red dress (symbolising
love and royalty) and holding a blue mantle (hope and fidelity). The dark room she
is in could be in Seville, with the windows shut to keep out the heat of a summer
afternoon, and its furnishings are simple – just a rush-bottomed chair and a Chinese
bowl holding some flowers: a rose (symbol of love), a five-petalled red carnation (the
five wounds of Christ) and a lily (virginal purity) (fig. 214). This kraak bowl is
131
similar to one from the San Diego, dating to around 1600 (fig. 215). The outside

213. Francisco de Zurbarán, Sleeping Child Mary. C. 1655. Oil on canvas, 103 × 90 cm.
Galerie Canesso, Paris.

131 Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla 1998, p. 222.

272 Chinese Porcelain in Habsburg Spain