Saint Romanus of Antioch and Saint Barulas
Historical Context
Zurbarán's Saint Romanus of Antioch and Saint Barulas (1638) depicts the third-century deacon martyred in Antioch under Diocletian, accompanied by the young boy Barulas who died affirming his faith. Painted during Zurbarán's most productive period as the dominant painter for Sevillian churches and convents, the work embodies his characteristic treatment of martyrdom — monumental figures in silhouette against neutral backgrounds, with an atmosphere of quiet spiritual intensity rather than dramatic anguish. The two figures — the adult deacon and the child companion — are rendered with the same gravitas Zurbarán brought to his famous series of saints, each figure a meditation on faith confronting death.
Technical Analysis
Zurbaran's oil on canvas combines his signature tenebrism with monumental figure composition, rendering the saints' robes with his celebrated ability to paint white fabric with extraordinary tonal subtlety.
Provenance
Church of San Roman, Seville, until at least 1800 [Cean Bermudez 1800]; removed by government decree and deposited in the Alcazar, Seville, 1810 [lmaz 1896, no. 11]; taken by Marshal Jean-de-Dieu Soult (1769-1851), 1st Duke of Dalmatia, Paris, by 1812 [see the Getty Provenance Index database, F-23, which lists the painting in Sault's estate inventory of February 5, 1852, as no. 150; date of acquisition according to Delenda 2009]; sale of his estate, Galerie Lebrun, Paris, May 19-22, 1852, lot no. 28, presumably bought in [according to an annotated copy of the sale catalogue, Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, The Hague; copies in curatorial file, and Baticle 1999]; by descent to his son, Napoleon-Hector Soult (1802-1857), 2nd Duke of Dalmatia, Paris [according to a postmortem inventory of his collection, dated January 18, 1858; Getty Provenance Index database, F-197, no. 9]; by descent; sold, collection of Marshal Soult, Hotel Drouot, Paris, April 17, 1867, lot no. 6, for 5,330 francs [according to an annotated copy of the sale catalogue, Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, The Hague; copy in curatorial file]. Sergei Ivanovich Stchoukine, Paris and Moscow, until 1910 [this and the following according to London 1913; date according to Delenda 2009]. Joachim Caravallo, Château de Villandry, France, from 1910 to 1914. Grafton Galleries, London, from 1914 to 1918 [Kehrer 1918; date according to Delenda 2009]. Charles Deering (1852-1927), Chicago and Miami, by 1918 [Arroyo 1918]; by descent to his daughters, Mrs. Chauncey McCormick (née Marion Deering) and Mrs. Richard Ely Danielson (née Barbara Deering); given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1947.
