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Shown from about the hips up, a young woman with smooth, light skin, rosy cheeks, and dark brown hair stands in front of a dark background holding a pewter plate with two human eyes on it, and a tall palm frond in this vertical painting. She stands with her body and face angled to our right but she looks to our left from the corners of her dark eyes, under dark eyebrows. She has a long, straight nose, and her pink lips are closed. A strong light falls on the woman’s face from our left, leaving the other half of her face in darkness. She wears a crown of ruby-red, buttercup-yellow, shell-pink, and white flowers on her head. A faint gold halo catches the light above the flowers and then is swallowed in shadow. Her dress has a close-fitting, scarlet-red bodice over puffy white, long sleeves. A teal-blue ribbon on her chest frames a gold and red brooch-like medallion. Three strings of white pearls encircle her neck above the neckline. Olive-green fabric that drapes over her left shoulder, farther from us, and around her waist is gathered with a gold brooch at her left hip. In her right hand, closer to us, she holds the pewter plate with two lidded human eyes with dark pupils; they seem to look out at us. In her left hand, she holds a long yellow palm frond, which is bright against the dark brown background. The identify of the woman is written in capital, gold letters in the upper left corner “S. LVCIA.”

Francisco de Zurbarán

Saint Lucy, c. 1625/1630

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 34

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 104.14 × 77 cm (41 × 30 5/16 in.)

framed: 133.7 x 106 x 8.9 cm (52 5/8 x 41 3/4 x 3 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Chester Dale Collection

Accession Number

1943.7.11

Artists / Makers

Francisco de Zurbarán (artist) Spanish, 1598 - 1664

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Overview

Few images of saints show women as gorgeously attired as Francisco de Zurbarán's. His Saint Lucy portrays the young martyr as a contemporary woman of Seville. Bejeweled and carefully coiffed, she presents her startling attribute, a pair of naturalistically painted eyeballs on a pewter dish.

Multiple versions of the legend of Saint Lucy, the daughter of an aristocratic family in fourth-century Syracuse, arose during the Counter-Reformation. One popular interpretation, inspired by her unusual attribute, maintained that Lucy, determined to dedicate her life to Christ, had plucked out her eyes and sent them to a tenacious suitor after he insisted that their beauty allowed him no peace. Astounded by her devotion to her faith, the admirer converted to Christianity, and Lucy, the legend continues, later found her eyesight miraculously restored one day during prayer. It is possible that the young saint's connection with eyes originated in the Latin source for her name, Lux or "light," which is inextricably linked with vision.

The success of Zurbarán's many images of virgin martyrs derived not only from their inherently pleasing theme -- beautiful, splendidly dressed women -- but also from the artist's gifts as a colorist and his talent for combining the spiritual and material.

More information on this painting can be found in the Gallery publication Spanish Paintings of the Fifteenth through Nineteenth Centuries, which is available as a free PDF https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/publications/pdfs/spanish-painting-15th-19th-centuries.pdf

Inscription

upper left: S.LVCIA

Provenance

Art market, Paris, 1927-1928;[1] Paul Somazzi, Izmir, Turkey;[2] sold 1930 or after through Lily Buser, Philadelphia, to (Ehrich Galleries, New York);[3] sold February 1934 to Chester Dale [1883-1962], New York;[4] gift to NGA 1943.

[1] In Auguste S. Mayer, "Unbekannte Werke Zurburans", Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst, 56 (1927-1928): 291, the credit line for Saint Lucy is given as "Paris Kunsthandel".

[2] The city of Izmir was known earlier as Smyrna, which is the name used often in the Zurbarán literature.

[3] According to the notarized statement dated 11 August 1930 in which Paul Somazzi authorizes Miss Lily Buser to act as his agent in selling the painting; in NGA curatorial files.

[4] According to the Dale collection records, in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Art market, Paris
Dale, Chester
Ehrich Galleries
Somazzi, Paul

Exhibition History

1965: The Chester Dale Bequest, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1965, unnumbered checklist.

Technical Summary

The painting is on a rather coarse, fairly open-weave fabric and is lined with an aqueous adhesive to fabric. The tacking margins have been cut off, and there is cusping of the fabric support on the right and bottom edges. There is a white ground layer over which an oil-type paint is applied wet into dry. It is relatively thinly applied with a certain amount of impasto in the flowers and some highlights. The original fabric is highly dessicated, and the condition of the paint layer suggests that there was once severe flaking overall. The existing losses are small but numerous, and many are filled with inpainting and discolored varnish. Also, the paint surface is abraded throughout and covered with a thick, discolored varnish. Discolored residues of old varnish which appear in the green drapery are particularly disfiguring.

Bibliography

1927: Mayer, August S. "Unbekannte Werke Zurbarans." Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst 56 (1927-1928): 289-292, repro. 292.

1943: Washington Times-Herald (18 July 1943): C-10.

1944: Soria, Martin S. "Francisco de Zurbarán: A Study of His Style." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 86 (1944): 33-48, 153-174, especially 167.

1945: Cook 1945, 82-83, fig. 10.

1951: Soria, Martin S. "Two Early Paintings by Zurbarán." The Art Quarterly 14 (1951): 256-260, figs. 1, 3.

1953: Soria, Martin S. The Paintings of Zurbarán. London, 1953: 9, 23, 133, no. 2, pl. 2.

1960: Evans, Grose. Spanish Painting in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1960 (Booklet Number Ten in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 24, color repro.

1960: Guinard, Paul. Zurbarán et les peintres espagnols de la vie monastique. Paris, 1960: 240, no. 272, repro.

1965: Paintings other than French in the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 10, repro., as Santa Lucia.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 141.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 128, repro.

1973: Gregori, Mina, and Tiziana Frati. L'opera completa di Zurbarán. Milan, 1973: 99, no. 168, pl. 26.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 380, repro.

1977: Gudiol y Ricart, José, and Julián Gállego. Zurbarán 1598-1664. London, 1977: 78, no. 51, fig. 58.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 247, no. 313, color repro., as Santa Lucia.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 444, repro.

1990: Brown, Jonathan, and Richard G. Mann. Spanish Paintings of the Fifteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1990: 134-136, color repro. 135.

1992: National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 84, repro.

2004: Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 171, no. 132, color repro.