On-line gallery
- Reference number
- P01239
- Author
- Zurbarán, Francisco de (Spanish)
- Title
- Saint Elisabeth of Portugal
- Chronology
- Ca. 1635
- Technique
- Support
- Measures
- 184 cm x 98 cm
- School
- Theme
- Shown
- Yes
- Entrance
- COLECCION REAL
- Procedence
- Royal collection
The saint is shown full length,
walking toward the right and
wearing a seventeenth-century
lady's clothing. The roses she
carries over her skirt allude to
the miracle in which coins from the
Royal Treasury, which she secretly
handed out to the needy, turned
into roses. A similar story is told
about Saint Casilda, with whom this
painting has also been
identified.
This is one of Zurbarán's most
elegant portraits, and her rich
garments offer him a magnificent
opportunity to demonstrate his
extraordinary capacity to depict
textures. It reveals the technical
mastery he acquired in a highly
recurrent prototype present in his
work: the representation of figures
that stand out over a dark
background and look directly at the
viewer. Sometimes these are
“portraits in a divine manner,”
that is, portraits of living people
depicted with the attributes of the
saints they were named after. Here
it is Queen Isabel of
Portugal.
The origin of this painting is
unknown. It was first documented in
1814 at Madrid's Royal Palace.
Location on the map
