Zurbarán 'superstar' at the MNAC

BarcelonaDetached from Zurbarán. The National Art Museum of Catalonia (MNAC) opens this Friday an exhibition on the impact of his work on a string of contemporary artists, entitled Zurbarán (on) naturalThe whole is very impressive, but, despite everything, one leaves wanting to see more works by Francisco de Zurbarán (1598-1664), perhaps because of the historical milestone that being able to see, as soon as one arrives, the three versions of Saint Francis of Assisi according to the vision of Pope Nicholas V: the one from the Museum of Fine Arts in Lyon and the one from the MNAC itself flanking the one from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. All three versions come from Lyon, where they could be seen together for the first time a few months ago in a solo exhibition on Zurbarán.

In addition, the San Francisco The painting, which was restored in the MNAC (Spanish National Museum of Modern Art), has undergone a thorough restoration sponsored by the Francisco Godia Foundation. Thanks to this, the painting has undergone a significant transformation: the repainting that hid the niche in which the saint is placed has been removed, thus adding depth to the composition. The figure has also gained volume thanks to the restoration of the folds of the habit and details such as the facial hair, eyebrows, and beard. "The absolutely exceptional opportunity to compare the paintings sheds new light on each of them," says Joan Yeguas, curator of Renaissance and Baroque at the museum and curator of the exhibition along with the curator of late avant-garde art, Àlex Mitrani.

Saint Francis of Assisi according to the vision of Pope Nicholas V It recalls Zurbarán's audacity and modernity. According to legend, Pope Nicholas V (1397-1455) asked to be shown the saint's mummy in the crypt of the Basilica of Assisi, and was stupefied when he found the saint's remains incorrupt. Instead of portraying Nicholas V's stupefaction, Zurbarán focused on his vision: the saint's body exposed within a niche. Yes, it is a corpse, not a saint in ecstasy, as had been once reported. As Yeguas explains, the story of the Pope was "fake news of the time," and highlights how Zurbarán "condenses a complex narrative by focusing on the essential and showing only the Pope's subjective vision." "Zurbarán arranges the figure of Saint Francis as if it were a work of art in a museum, working with light, space, and geometric construction; thus, he gives it inner strength and a prodigious presence, making it seem as if the saint's mummy had a life of its own," Yeguas adds.

The transcendent power of works of art

For Mitrani, Zurbarán's "zoom" in on the figure of Saint Francis brings him closer to the sensibilities of contemporary artists such as Antoni Tàpies, Marta Povo, Josep Guinovart, Toni Catany, Antoni Llena, Alfonso Borrell, Joan Hernández Pijuan, Eulalia Valldosera, and Aurèlia Muñoz. And with all of them, he has conceived an exhibition that he defines as "an immersive analog experience," in which he hopes visitors will have "an aesthetic experience that allows them to understand, appreciate, and experience the power of art." Mitrani wants the public to delve into "the capacity of artistic images to transfigure reality and elevate it to transcendence, giving it a dimension of mystery."

The tour is organized as a succession of blogs featuring paintings by Zurbarán and other Catalan artists. In front of the three Saint Francises, there are Large grey cloth for Kassel, by Antoni Tàpies. Like the arrangement of the saints, this painting resembles a triptych, but it would be devoid of images, leaving only scratches and gouges in a wall. Curiously, further on there is a painting from Zurbarán's workshop in Tàpies' collection, a Mercedarian martyr with a knife stuck in the back of his neck, which dialogues with some sixty drawings by Antoni Llena (who was a monk for a few years) inspired by Zurbarán, but imbued with a "distance." Furthermore, Llena and Tàpies were great friends.

In another area, there is a juicy dialogue between a Veronica by Zurbarán and a still life with rotten quinces on a white tablecloth by Toni Catany; the morbid nature of Catany's fruits certainly draws attention. Shortly after is the other great collection of Zurbarán's works, with the two versions of Still life of vases: both belonged to Francesc Cambó, who exhibited one at the MNAC and the other at the Prado Museum. "Zurbarán generates an aesthetic of emptiness, of distance and presence, and of silence, in which there is no distinction between the everyday and religious mystery," says Mitrani.

As a counterpoint, the finale of the exhibition, which will be open until June 29, is about women. After the installation Maria (to Francisco de Zurbarán), by Eulalia Valldosera, two Virgin of Zurbarán: Virgin of Mercy with two Mercedarians, owned by the Prado, although they have let the MNAC display it first; and Immaculate Conception, from the same MNAC. Among them, with a miraculous, levitating effect, is the textile sculpture by Aurèlia Muñoz Social entity.