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Find the scrap of paper at the foot of the cross where Zurbarán signed and dated the picture, then the board lettered in three scripts above.
The Dominicans of San Pablo el Real in Seville ordered a series of paintings from the young Zurbarán in 1626, and this Crucifixion, signed and dated 1627, was among them. It hung in a dim room where visitors saw it through a grille, and early writers said it looked like a carved sculpture. Strong light picks out the body against a dark, empty background.
Oil on canvas · 290.3 × 165.5 cm · Art Institute of Chicago · Renaissance · Baroque
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Details and source
- Museum title
- The Crucifixion
- Artist
- Francisco de Zurbarán (Spanish, 1598–1664)
- Date
- 1627
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 290.3 × 165.5 cm (114 5/16 × 65 3/16 in.); Framed: 339.1 × 212.1 × 14 cm (133 3/8 × 83 1/2 × 5 1/2 in.)
- Credit line
- Robert A. Waller Memorial Fund
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Art Institute of Chicago
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.