Saint Elizabeth of Portugal

Zurbarán painted Saint Elizabeth of Portugal around 1635, depicting the medieval queen who renounced court life to care for the poor and became one of the most venerated female saints of the Iberian Peninsula. Elizabeth was a particularly important subject in the Spanish and Portuguese tradition, and Zurbarán's treatment depicts her in the rich court dress of a queen combined with the symbols of her charitable work — baskets of bread that legend says she miraculously transformed from roses when confronted by her suspicious husband. The warm, detailed rendering of the royal costume against the austere background demonstrates Zurbarán's characteristic synthesis of material splendor and spiritual concentration in his female saint series.

The queen's richly embroidered court dress is rendered with Zurbarán's extraordinary textile realism, the stiff brocade and delicate lace modeled by his characteristic raking sidelight against a plain dark ground.