Description
Francisco de Zurbarán excelled at painting altarpieces that presented saints in an accessible manner, as required by the conventions of the Counter-Reformation, the Catholic Church’s effort to oppose the Protestant Reformation and revitalize Catholicism. Catholic reformers emphasized that religious painting should offer easily recognizable figures and narratives in order to be accessible to a contemporary audience. This canvas, made for the high altar of the church of San Román in Seville, Spain, depicts the church’s dedication to Saint Romanus of Antioch. Romanus towers over Saint Barulas, a child of seven, who was inspired to martyrdom by the elder saint’s words. Romanus, himself martyred in 303 under the emperor Diocletian, holds up his own tongue, torn out by his tormentors, and grasps a massive book inscribed with a prayer invoking his intercession on behalf of the faithful.
Provenance
Church of San Roman, Seville, until at least 1800 [Cean Bermudez 1800]; removed by government decree and deposited in the Alcazar, Seville, 1810 [lmaz 1896, no. 11]; taken by Marshal Jean-de-Dieu Soult (1769-1851), 1st Duke of Dalmatia, Paris, by 1812 [see the Getty Provenance Index database, F-23, which lists the painting in Sault's estate inventory of February 5, 1852, as no. 150; date of acquisition according to Delenda 2009]; sale of his estate, Galerie Lebrun, Paris, May 19-22, 1852, lot no. 28, presumably bought in [according to an annotated copy of the sale catalogue, Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, The Hague; copies in curatorial file, and Baticle 1999]; by descent to his son, Napoleon-Hector Soult (1802-1857), 2nd Duke of Dalmatia, Paris [according to a postmortem inventory of his collection, dated January 18, 1858; Getty Provenance Index database, F-197, no. 9]; by descent; sold, collection of Marshal Soult, Hotel Drouot, Paris, April 17, 1867, lot no. 6, for 5,330 francs [according to an annotated copy of the sale catalogue, Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, The Hague; copy in curatorial file]. Sergei Ivanovich Stchoukine, Paris and Moscow, until 1910 [this and the following according to London 1913; date according to Delenda 2009]. Joachim Caravallo, Château de Villandry, France, from 1910 to 1914. Grafton Galleries, London, from 1914 to 1918 [Kehrer 1918; date according to Delenda 2009]. Charles Deering (1852-1927), Chicago and Miami, by 1918 [Arroyo 1918]; by descent to his daughters, Mrs. Chauncey McCormick (née Marion Deering) and Mrs. Richard Ely Danielson (née Barbara Deering); given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1947.
