![]() That was not enough for one 19th-century critic, who called the stupendous Zurbarán (confronting the visitor in the exhibition’s first room) of St Francis in Meditation clasping a skull, “a small, black, repulsive picture” when the National Gallery bought it, for £265, in 1853. They were optical instruments of religion, windows to another world. ![]() None of the older paintings here – the El Greco with palpable clouds resolving into a vision of Christ, or the great big Murillo of the saint embracing Christ on the Cross – were made to be seen in a museum. The coarse-spun garment is housed in a gilt Baroque frame, not because it is “art” but because it is a relic, to be viewed with devotion. The object I found most moving in the National Gallery’s magnificent exhibition St Francis of Assisi was a sackcloth habit reputed to have been worn by the 13th-century poverello, the man who took poverty seriously. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |