Fine Art

Still Life with Lemons, Oranges and a Rose — History & Facts

Citrons on a silver plate, a basket of oranges with their blossoms, and a cup of water with a rose stand in a row on a table. The Norton Simon Museum describes it as the only signed and dated still life by Francisco de Zurbarán, the great master of the school of Seville, painted in 1633. According to the museum, the measured placement of the three groups would have been understood as an allusion to the Holy Trinity. It has also been read as an homage to the Virgin Mary: the oranges, their blossoms and the cup of water stand for her purity, and the thornless rose for her Immaculate Conception. The painting was restored in 2008 by Mark Leonard, then head of paintings conservation at the J.

Paul Getty Museum. It is in the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California.

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