The Vision of Saint Peter Nolasco

In the painting, Vision of Saint Peter Nolasco (Visión de San Pedro Nolasco), the Spanish Golden Age master Francisco de Zurbarán (1598-1664) portrays an extreme example of the early Spanish Baroque Tenebrism. The artwork depicts one of the more significant miracles in the life of Saint Peter Nolasco, the 13th-century (1205-1270) founder of the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy (Mercedarians). With this spiritual visit, Nolasco is told by an angel to concentrate on the “Heavenly Jerusalem” (Jerusalén Celestial) according to the Book of Revelation. The monumental composition is structured by three pictorial planes with the kneeling saint resting his elbow on a wooden table next to an open prayer book, while Peter Nolasco kneels in his voluminous, white Mercedarian costume. The folds of the white wool robe are sculptural, voluminous, and display Zurbarán’s unique ability to represent the density, gradation of white to white, and the tactile reality of cloth. Apart from that, the angel from heaven is in a classical pose, standing on the right, and pointing up to the divine one in a rose-pink and blue tunic. In the upper-left corner, there is a city with walls and towers, surrounded by a ring of golden light, representing the light of heaven. The upper-left corner shows a city with a wall and towers, surrounded by a circle of golden light, symbolizing the light of heaven. The walled medieval-Renaissance city of the Heavenly Jerusalem is in the upper-left corner, surrounded by fortified towers and arched gates, and encircled by a halo of golden light. The top right half has a burst of golden light, resembling a rainbow or a sunburst. In 1628, Zurbarán made a big contract with the Mercedarian friars of Seville for the production of twenty-two paintings for the canonization of St Peter Nolasco, which took place in 1828. The other painting made in the same year as The Apparition of Saint Peter to Saint Peter Nolasco (Prado, Inv. 497) is The Vision of Saint Peter Nolasco. The identification of the painting (P001237) put Zurbarán firmly on the map of Seville as the city's leading painter of the religious genre. In the canvas, Zurbarán expresses his typical chiaroscuro style, which is characterized by a dark, opaque background, with a clear and strong light source, such as a window, that gives sculptural intensity to the figures. Rather than the Italian Baroque theatrical effects, Zurbarán’s miracle is described in quiet, restrained, and introspective mysticism characteristic of the Counter-Reformation art of Spain.