Zurbarán: Divine Light

About This Event

A rare full showcase for the Spanish Golden Age painter best known for stark, almost sculptural saints and still lifes — the kind of show that doesn't tour to many U.S. cities. A slow-burn recommendation for anyone who finds the museum's Impressionist wing crowded and wants a quieter room.

Francisco de Zurbarán was born in rural Extremadura in 1598 and sent to Seville at 16 to apprentice under a local painter — he ended up based there for most of his career, becoming the city's leading painter through the 1630s and '40s. Critics nicknamed him the 'Spanish Caravaggio' for his stark use of light and shadow, and he built his reputation largely on religious commissions for monasteries: in 1626 alone, he signed a contract to deliver 21 paintings to a Dominican monastery in just eight months. His monks and saints look almost sculpted out of the canvas, a technique that made him one of the defining painters of the Spanish Baroque even though he never achieved the same lasting fame outside Spain as contemporaries like Velázquez.

Worth knowing: tickets run $32 for non-Illinois residents, $20 for residents, free for members — no single showtime applies since it's a regular museum exhibit running for nearly four months.