This exhibition brings together for the first time the three paintings by Spanish painter Francisco de Zurbarán (1590-1664) depicting Saint Francis of Assisi standing mummified.  These works are held by the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya in Barcelona and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

The subject matter of these emblematic works contributes to their singularity, as does their masterly execution. The body of Saint Francis (c. 1182-1226) appears here as Pope Nicholas V (1397-1455) is said to have discovered it in the crypt of the Basilica of San Francesco in Assisi (Italy) in 1449: standing, eyes open and turned towards heaven, like a living person.  

Present before the French Revolution in Lyon's Convent of the Colinettes, on the slopes of the Croix-Rousse hill, the painting of Saint Francis in Lyon's Musée des Beaux-Arts was the first work by Zurbarán to join the collections of a French museum in 1807. Since then, it has become one of the centrepieces of the museum's  paintings collection and continues to impress visitors with its expressive power and remarkable quality.

This exhibition explores the inspiration and sources of this highly original creation, as well as the prodigious reception of Zurbarán's Saint Francis paintings by artists from the 19th century to the present day. It questions the meaning of the avatars of these three iconic works from the Golden Age, Spain's period of cultural influence in Europe (1492-1681).

The celebration of the beauty of Zurbarán's work, of its "modernity", goes hand in hand with the demonstration of the timelessness of these masterpieces which offer matter for reflection, enjoyment and new creations in every era.   

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Zurbarán. Reinventar una obra maestra

Por primera vez, la exposición reúne las tres pinturas de Francisco de Zurbarán de San Francisco de pie y momificado, actualmente en el Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, el Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC) de Barcelona y el Museo de Bellas Artes de Boston, respectivamente.

La exposición explora los motores y las fuentes de esta creación, e identifica y cuestiona el significado de los múltiples avatares de estos iconos del Siglo de Oro, reuniendo un centenar de obras creadas entre los siglos XVI y XXI: pinturas, esculturas, dibujos, grabados, fotografías y piezas de alta costura. La exposición pone de relieve la prodigiosa recepción de las obras icónicas creadas por Zurbarán por parte de artistas de los siglos XIX, XX y XXI. La exposición estará abierta del 5 de diciembre de 2024 al 2 de marzo de 2025 en Lyon.

The  exhibition Forms of the Ruin has its origins in the book by art historian and archaeologist Alain Schnapp, Une histoire universelle des ruines. Des origines aux Lumières, published in 2020 by Éditions du Seuil, of which it is a variation. The aim of the exhibition is to make this history visible, from a global and comparative perspective, from prehistory to the contemporary period.

Why are some works considered to be memorials while others arouse no interest at all until they are rediscovered ? The Greeks looked at the ruins of Egypt or the remains of the palaces of Assyria with unparalleled enthusiasm. The Romans were mad for about Greek works of art and flocked to the sanctuaries to admire them. The clerics of the Middle Ages regarded Roman remains with both admiration and concern. During the Renaissance, curiosity about the Greco-Roman world and the civilisations of America took hold. During the Enlightenment, this interest spread TO include Asia, Africa and Oceania. This Western scenario differs from that of China, Japan and the Arab-Muslim world, which developed their own uses of ruins.

Drawing on a selection of over 300 works, this exhibition is designed as a journey through ruins, in an ongoing dialogue between civilisations and is centered around four themes: memory and oblivion, the tension between nature and culture, the link between the material and the immaterial, and the confrontation between the present and the future. Its ambition is to question societies through history and at the same time to confront the research of contemporary artists in their desire to interpret the ruins of our industrial societies and imagine their future.

This exhibition of almost 300 objects, the first ever to be dedicated to the Renaissance in Lyon, presents the largest possible panorama of artistic expression in the city during that period.