Blessed Henry Suso

This 1639 painting of Blessed Henry Suso, a 14th-century Dominican mystic, is in the Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla. Suso's intense devotion to the suffering Christ made him a natural subject for Counter-Reformation painters, and Zurbarán captures his ecstatic spirituality. Zurbarán's austere, powerfully meditative style—white-robed monks in intense chiaroscuro, saints presented against dark backgrounds with sculptural solidity—made him the ideal painter for the Counter-Reformation religious orders of Extremadura and Seville.

The Dominican friar is shown in the black and white habit of his order, the stark contrast characteristic of Zurbarán's bold chromatic approach. The mystical subject is grounded by the artist's unfailing naturalism in rendering fabric and flesh.