Saint Francis in Prayer in a Grotto

Francisco Zurbaran

Saint Francis in Prayer in a Grotto

Oil on canvas, ca. 1650-55

The San Diego Museum of Art

I was drawn to this piece because of my Catholic religious background and my knowledge of St. Francis de Assisi.  He was most known for his kindness and humanity.  During my confirmation classes and the masses I attended, the priest would mention this Saint when his message was about being kind to others. 

 

This piece has both symbolic meaning and historical significance. This painting was created approximately 1650, a couple of years after the end of the Thirty Year War.  This war was between the Catholics and the Protestants, was the longest in European history, and resulted in death and destruction, it split the Holy Roman Empire.  I believe that the skull in the image represents the devastation of the war, and the famine and disease that decreased the population at that time.

This piece of art was created during the Baroque art movement which was between 1600-1750 where religious art was used to praise God and as a weapon in the war.  Francisco de Zurbaran created many pieces of Saint Francis de Assisi who was a big part of his career.  Zurbaran admired this Saint and used art as a way to feel to closer to God.  Most of Zurbaran's work was for religious orders and churches but this piece was when he was doing domestic paintings.

 

Although I cannot find the commission, the first documented owner was Don Luis Pacheco Suarez de Deza of Spain.  During the Baroque movement the people were very interested in religious art.  This piece of work was carried down to his son and stayed in the family for 200 years until a new owner was documented. The audience for this piece were wealthy people that had been affected by the Thirty Year War.  But this piece was carried on because of how famous Saint Francis de Assisi was and how his morals were admired by people then and even today. 

Arthur Putman

Man Struggling with Lioness and Cub 

Bronze, by 1908, cast 1921 

The San Diego Museum of Art 

(This is me throwing up a peace sign) 

I was drawn to this piece because it looked cool, and in my opinion showed very good detailed craftsmanship. In particular, I was impressed with the way he captured the muscular definition of both the Lions and Man. I was also drawn to this piece because I read that his artistic abilities thrived when he lived in East County of San Diego, near where my grandparents live. 

The piece had a more symbolic meaning. I believe that it tries to capture the everyday struggles with your inner self. Such as a person fighting the pain from a troubled past, the momma lion could symbolize an abusive parent and the cub could be a bad sibling.

Putnam was one of the most famous sculptors in California. He followed one of the most famous sculptors of all time, Antoine-Louis Bayre. Arthur Putnam was considered "the American Bayre" because he adopted similar sculpture techniques which was during the Romantic movement of the early to mid 1800s.  During the time that Arthur Putnam was sculpting, the Realism art movement was happening. Even though realism rejects romanticism,  Putnam's pieces still followed the elements of romanticism connecting the human world and natural world.

However Romanticism shifted  to Symbolism during 1830–1900.  I believe Putnam's piece follows the shift. At his core Putnam was a Romantic, but his work also conveyed Symbolism as he demonstrated through his art, emotions, feelings, ideas rather than realism. I believe his work is personal and expressed his own ideologies.

While his first commission was five years earlier, there was no documentation of this piece being commissioned.  However, we do know that it was developed during his time in San Francisco where he began sculpting all the time. Unfortunately three years later he was partially paralyzed due to a brain tumor and was never able to work again. I believe the audience for Putnam's work is meant to be other artists that he spent a lot of time with, the wealthy that commissioned his work, and those that loved animals.