Francisco de Zurbarán (Born 1598) was known for his mastery of a naturalistic style. He was a Spanish Baroque painter whose majority of work followed religious themes. He was born in Fuente de Cantos in Spain. After showing a talent for painting as a child, he was sent to Seville in 1614 to apprentice. As a teenager, Zurbarán studied painting, and soon was able to create pieces for monasteries in Spain. Later on, he also sent his paintings to the New World. In 1617, after he had finished his training, the artist moved to Llerena. It’s here that he got married to María Páez, and worked for several years as a freelance artist. His wife died in 1623, and following the death of his first wife, he wed Beatriz de Morales in 1625.
The family and money connections his second wife possessed were a boon for his career, and enabled him to return to Seville. Once he was in Seville, he pursued religious orders were then a significant source of work for artists. In 1627, the Dominican monastery commissioned him to paint "Christ on a Cross" which turned out to be a great masterpiece and secured him a standing as a respected and sought after painter. The council of Seville invited him to stay in the city from in 1629. Although a majority of Zurbarán’s paintings were great, some of his work has revealed his limitations. Some attribute this to his unfit assistants who even made the creations of his workshop to be of poor quality.
