São Serapião

Zurbaran painted this in 1628 for a particular room, the De Profundis hall of the Mercedarian monastery in Seville, where dead friars were laid out before burial. The men who prayed in front of it belonged to an order with an unusual fourth vow: beyond poverty, chastity and obedience, each swore to give himself up in exchange for a Christian held captive by pirates across the Mediterranean. The figure is Serapion, a 13th-century friar martyred doing exactly that. Zurbaran spares the gore and floods almost the whole canvas with the white of the habit, so the heavy folds of cloth carry the weight while the body hangs slack from its bound wrists. A small note pinned beside him gives the saint's name.