Saint Francis in Prayer Before the Crucifix - Bilbao Fine Arts Museum

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Saint Francis in Prayer Before the Crucifix

Greco, El

Candia, Crete, 1541-Toledo, 07/04/1614

Oil on canvas

105.5 x 86.5 cm

doménikos theotokópolis e'poiei (bracket in the bottom right hand corner)

c. 1585

16th century. Last quarter

69/115

Acquired in 1940

In his Arte de la pintura, Francisco Pacheco conferred upon El Greco the honour of being the best interpreter of the figure Saint Francis of his era ("We leave to Domenico Greco [he wrote] the honour of being the person who has best portrayed Saint Francis by depicting him faithful to the story, even if he dresses him roughly in coarse sackcloth like a monk"). Saint Francis in Prayer Before the Crucifix was one of El Greco's most felicitous portrayals of Saint Francis and surely also one of the most popular. Wethey catalogued 16 works of this kind, including originals, paintings by the artist's atelier and 17th-century copies, although in his opinion, only three of those surviving today were most likely painted by the master: this one at the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, the one in the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco and the one at the Art Institute of Chicago (this latter one in conjunction with his atelier).

In depictions of this kind, Saint Francis appears dressed, as Pacheco said, 'in coarse sackcloth', kneeling inside a cave with his head seen in profile and his hands crossed over his chest, meditating with his eyes trained on a crucifix which is leaning on a skull. A closed book with several paper place markers is next to the skull and the crucifix and, like them, on top of a white cloth painted in very dark tones. As Wethey pointed out, if we bear in mind its size, the book must be a breviary, and the papers probably mark the office on a given day. Regarding the cave, it is unquestionably the one that is described in the Little Flowers of Saint Francis as a "small, poor cell dug out at the base of a beautiful beech which was located a stone's throw from the monastery of the friars" on Mount Alvernia. The saint and his objects of meditation stand out, neatly illuminated over the dark cave wall, where a branch of ivy hangs down, a commonplace in depictions that allude to penance, while the outside is only hinted at by a small opening to the sky on the top right. Apart from the technical differences, which stem from the painter's stylistic evolution, the composition of the different known versions does not vary significantly, although it should be noted that in the museum's painting of Saint Francis (the latest of all the originals known), El Greco maintained his facial features yet considerably rejuvenated the saint's face.

The painting at the Bilbao museum comes from the convent of Discalced Carmelite nuns in Cuerva (Toledo), which was founded by Aldonza Niño, the sister of Cardinal Niño de Guevara and the mother of Pedro Laso de la Vega, the Count of Arcos, who owned an important collection of El Greco paintings, some of which, such as the two versions of the Allegory of the Camaldolese Order, were most likely the product of direct commissions to the painter. Therefore, we can assume that this Saint Francis was also the result of a direct commission-from either Pedro Laso or his mother-meant for the recently-founded convent, where Doña Aldonza also built a funerary chapel for her family.Judging by its technical characteristics, it is earlier than the other known originals and may have been the first in the series. Söehner dates it from between 1583 and 1585, and Wethey between 1585 and 1590. Other historians have preferred to assign it a later date; thus, Gudiol has situated it between 1587 and 1597, and Lafuente Ferrari and Pita Andrade between 1595 and 1605. In my opinion, Gudiol's date is the most likely. What we are totally certain about, and where all scholars agree, is on the magnificent original quality of the painting. Gómez-Moreno considered it the best example of this composition, and Lafuente Ferrari described it as 'excellent' ('on the cloak, in particular [he wrote], one can see that shading technique with luminous brushstrokes which are so Impressionistic and confer a curious vibration on the surface'). More recently, Gudiol drew attention to the use of the rubbing technique to confer quality on the details and give the impression of movement, and he praised the facture of the saint's face. (José Álvarez Lopera)

Selected bibliography

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