St Lesmes

St Lesmes is a 11th-century saint of French origin. He spent part of his life in Burgos, Spain and he became the patron saint of this city. In Murillo’s painting, probably an altarpiece, St Lesmes is portrayed standing, wearing a Benedictine habit, his head turned towards the sky, his right hand on his chest as if to assert his faith and a breviary and a rosary in his left hand. At the entrance to a cave behind him there is an altar that contains the image of a bishop in the act of blessing. In the distant landscape we are able to make out a bridge to the left and two pilgrims.

While the composition is indebted to the standing figures of saints ( e.g. St Lawrence) painted by Zurbar�n, Murillo’s sensitivity has little in common with the austerity of the Estremaduran artist and his pictures of saints, with their delicate and free-flowing technique, are the very expression of holiness.