La Visite de saint Bruno à Urbain II

Around 1655 Zurbarán was painting a cycle of canvases for the Carthusian monastery of Santa María de las Cuevas, on the edge of Seville. The Carthusians were the most silent of orders, and these pictures were made for men who spoke almost never. This one shows a quiet reunion. Bruno, who had founded the order as a hermit in the mountains, is received by Pope Urban II, once his own pupil, who now from the throne of Rome has called his old teacher to come and advise him. Zurbarán gives them plain white habits and a bare, hushed room, no crowd and no spectacle. The whole scene is pitched at the low murmur two old men might use, which is close to how the monks who saw it actually lived.