About This Artwork

Francisco de Zurbarán
Spanish, 1598–1664

The Crucifixion, 1627

Oil on canvas
114 5/16 x 65 3/16 in. (290.3 x 165.5 cm)
Signed and dated on a scrap of paper painted at the foot of the cross
Robert A. Waller Memorial Fund, 1954.15

Exhibition, Publication and Ownership Histories

Exhibition History

Art Institute of Chicago, The Art of the Edge: European Frames 1300 - 1900, October 17 - December 14, 1986, p. 77, no. 30.

New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Zurbarán, September 22 - December 13, 1987, no. 2, traveled to Paris, Galeries National du Grand Palais, January 14 - April 11, 1988.

Publication History

Antonio Palomino de Castro y Velasco, Lives of the Eminent Spanish Painters and Sculptors (1724), translated by Nina Mallory, Cambridge, 1987, p.184.

Antonio Ponz, Viaje de España, vol. IX, Madrid, 1786, pp. 89-90; 1947 edition, p. 785.

D. Juan Agustín Ceán Bermúdez, Diccionario Historico de los más Illustres Profesores de las Bellas Artes en España, Madrid, 1800, p.50.

José Gestoso Pérez, Ensayo de un diccionario de los artifices que florencieron en Sevilla desde el siglo XIII al XVIII inclusive, vol. 2, Seville, 1900, pp. 124-125.

M. Gómez Imaz, Inventario de los cuadros sustraidos por el Gobierno insturso en Sevilla (año 1810), Seville, 1917, Alcázar, room 7, no. 224, p. 141.

José Cascales y Muñoz, Francisco de Zurbarán: su época, su vida y sus obras, Madrid, 1911, p. 36; translated by Nellie Seelye Evans, New York, 1918, p. 17.

William Stirling-Maxwell, Annals of the Artists of Spain, London, 1891, p. 923.

Hugo Kehrer, Francisco de Zurbarán, Munich, 1918, pp. 18, 36-37.

Juan de Mata Corriazo, "Correspondencia de Don Antonio Ponz con el Conde del Aguila," Archivo Español de Arte y Arqueologia 5 (1929), p. 176.

Martin Soria, "Francisco de Zurbarán: A Study of His Style," Gazette des Beaux-Arts 6 ser., 25, 1944, p. 40.

Paul Guinard, "Los Conuntos dispersos o desaparecidos de Zurbarán: Anotaciones a Ceán Bermúdez (II)" Archivo espanol de arte 20 (1947), pp. 193, 194, 198, 199.

José Milicua, "El Crucifijo de San Pablo, de Zurbarán," Archivo Espanol de Arte 26 (1953), pp. 177-186, pls. III, IV.

"Found and Lost," Time Magazine (4 April 1955), p. 83 (ill.).

Martin Soria, "Zurbarán's Crucifixion," The Art Institute of Chicago Quarterly 49, 3 (1955), pp. 48-49.

Martin Soria, The Paintings of Zurbarán (London, 1955), pp. 21, 30, fig. 20.

"How Chicago Got Painting Lost to World for Century," Chicago Tribune (25 March 1955), p. 1, 3 (ill.).

"Chicago: Una Crocifissione di Zurbarán all'Art Institute," Emporium 122 (1955) pp. 88-89.

Paul Guinard, Zurbarán et les peintres espagnols de la vie monastique, Paris, 1960, pp. 141-42, 186, 219, no. 90, 285, pl. 8.

Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalgoue of the Picture Collection, Chicago, 1961, p. 489, ill. p. 104.

Ramon Torres Martín. Zurbarán: El Pintor gótico del siglo XVII (Seville, 1963), pp. 88-90, 202, no. 28, fig. 24.

Kaspar Spinner, "Helldunkel und Zeitlichkeit: Caravaggio, Ribera, Zurbarán, Georges de La Tour, Rembrandt," Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 34 (1971), p. 175 ( ill.), 176.

Mina Gregori and Tiziana Frati, L'opera completa di Zurbarán (Milan, 1973), p. 86, pl. 1, no. 23.

Jonathan Brown, Francisco de Zurbarán (New York, 1974), pp. 24, 66, pl. 4.

Julián Gállego and José Guidol, Zurbarán 1598-1664 (New York, 1977), pp. 16-17, 48, 68,73, no. 8.

J. Wood and K. Lee, Master Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago, p. 27.

Jeanine Baticle, "Découvrir Zurbaran," La Revue du Louvre et des Musées de France 37 (1987), p. 429.

Nina Ayala Mallory, "Notas criticas sobre La pintura de Zurbarán," Goya 201 (1987), p. 157, fig. 2.

Nina Ayala Mallory, "Museum News: Zurbarán," Art Journal 47, 3 (1988), p. 233.

Enriquette Harris, "Paris Zurbarán," Burlington Magazine 130 (1988), pp. 252-253.

Odile Delenda and Luis Garraín Villa, "Zurbarán Sculpteur: aspects inédits de sa carrière et de sa biographie," Gazette des Beaux-Arts 6th ser., 111 (1988), pp. 125, 126, fig. 1, cover ill.

Enrique Valdivieso, "Nouvelles perspectives sur Zurbarán: Les découvertes de l'exposition," La Revue du Louvre et des Musées de France 39 (1989), pp. 19, 21, fig. 2.

Richard Mühlberger, The Bible in Art: The New Testament (New York, 1990), pp. 126, 176, ill. p. 126.

Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez, Pintura barroca en España (1600-1750), Madrid, 1992, p. 189 (ill.).

Odile Delenda, Velázquez: peintre religieux, Paris, 1993, p. 108 (ill.).

María Luisa Caturla, Francisco de Zurbarán, Paris, 1994, pp. 48 (ill.), 49, 278.

Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez, La Pittura spagnola, vol. 2 (Milan, 1995), pp. 326 (ill.), 327.

Victor I. Stoichita, Visonary Experience in the Golden Age of Spanish Art (London, 1995), pp. 51 (ill.), 119.

The Dictionary of Art 33 (London, 1996), p. 729 (ill.).

Liudmila Kagané, Diego Velázquez (St. Petersburg, 1996), pp. 68, 70 (ill.).

Janis Tomlinson, From El Greco to Goya: Painting in Spain 1561-1828 (New York, 1997), pp. 69, 70 (ill.).

Jonathan Brown, Painting in Spain 1500-1700 (New Haven, 1998), pp. 133, 134 (ill.).

Yves Bottineau, Vé°lasquez (Paris, 1998), pp. 120, 123 (ill., no. 102).

Alfonso E. Pé°rez ánchez, "Zurbarán et Velázquez. Vies Paralèlles et Divergentes," Gazette des Beaux-Arts 132 (1998), p.168 (ill.).

Peter Cherry, "La formación de los pintores en los talleres sevillanos," in Zurbarán ante su centenario (1598-1998) ed. by Alfonso E. Pé°rez ánchez (Soria, 1999), p. 59, 69 (ill.).

Odile Delinda, "Biografía ilustrada de Francisco de Zurbarán. Nuevos datos," in Zurbarán ante su centenario (1598-1998) ed. by Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez, Soria, 1999, p. 73 (ill.), 80, 81.

Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez, "Zurbarán, Cano y Velázquez," in Zurbarán ante su centenario (1598-1998) ed. by Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez, Soria, 1999, p. 105.

Peter Cherry, "Seville and Elsewhere Zurbarán," Burlington Magazine 141 (1999), p. 130.

José María Palencia Cerezo, "La estela de Zurbarán en la pintura barroca cordobesa," Goya 275 (2000), p. 68.

Ownership History

Painted for the sacristy of the Dominican monastery San Pablo el Real, Seville; placed on deposit at Palacio Real, Seville, on the order of Joseph Bonaparte, King of Spain, 1810 [see M. Gómez Imaz, 1917, p. 141, no. 224]; acquired by General Jean Toussaint Arrighi de Casanova, Duc de Padoue (died 1853) shortly thereafter [as recounted by his son to Father Stanislas Du Lac, S.J.; see letter from Father Du Lac to Father Paul Troussard dated 16 February 1901 and preserved at the Bibliothèque Sèvres, Paris, copy in file]; by descent to his son, Ernest Louis Hyacinthe Arrighi de Casanova, 2nd Duc de Padoue, given by him to Father Stanislas Du Lac S.J. (died 1909), rector of the Collège Saint Geneviève, Paris, 1876 [see letter cited above; Father Du Lac explained that he received the painting in thanks for his spiritual assistance to the Duke's wife]; probably taken by Father Du Lac to St. Mary's College, Canterbury for period between 1880 and 1890 and likely remained at Canterbury when St. Mary's College was replaced by Jesuit school for noviciates; it was apparently moved from Canterbury to Laval along with the Jesuit novices' school in 1897 and was in Laval in 1901 [see letters from Jacqueline Diot and Father Du Lac in curatorial file]; transferred from Laval to the Jesuit seminary of Saint Louis at Jersey [see note with Du Lac letter]; transferred with the seminary to Chantilly in 1951 [see undated typewritten notes in curatorial file]. Dr. H. F. Fankhauser, Basel, 1952 [See Baticle in New York, 1988]; sold to the Art Institute, 1954.