Baroque Art - Francisco De Zurbaran

            Francisco De Zurbaran was a 17th century baroque period artist. He was born in the year 1598 in a town in Spain called Fuente de Cantos. He practiced his art long and hard from a young age. Finally in 1614 he got his apprenticeship with a Spanish artist by the name of Pedro Diaz. This was all good until 1617 when he decided to move to Llerena which was an important city at that time. He lived in Llerena until the year 1628.
           Little was know about the defining characteristics of his art. However it is know the he was just a painter and he painted many pieces for churches and cathedrals. He is also well known for his portraits however few of them are still around because he was known to be private and didn't keep records the same way someone else might. On the 17th of January in 1626 he did sign a contract with a monastery in Seville to do 21 paintings in a span of 8 months.
           This artist is considered to be a baroque period artist because of the time period he lived in he was comissioned to do art by many people for many reasons he was not really known for one work in particularly. In fact it is said that his works quality greatly deteriorated as he aged and like most artists he died crazy and alone abandoned by those he loved.
           Zurbarans art was mainly portraits so the effect he had on art in general was probably very minimal. The question I was supposed to write about in this paragraph really doesn't apply other than the fact that most of his art was fairly dark and portraits of his employers I don't see how that could produce much of any effect on anyone else.
           In summary I have learned about this small time baroque period artist who specialized in portraits and lived in Spain. He died in 1664 in Madrid, Spain.