How were Zurbarán’s life-size portraits used as political statements?

The life-size portraits ‘Asher’ and ‘Joseph’ are among the first works by Francisco de Zurbarán to arrive in Britain. National Gallery curators Francesca Whitlum-Cooper and Daniel Sobrino Ralston follow the story of the two paintings, from the Spanish painter’s series ‘Jacob and his Twelve Sons’.

When the Bishop of Durham bought 12 paintings by Francisco de Zurbarán in 1756, he did so with a purpose. With the help of Morlin Ellis and Clare Baron from the Spanish Gallery at Auckland Palace in County Durham, we discuss the historical significance behind these works.

Dive even deeper behind the scenes in the Gallery’s Conservation studio, where the paintings have undergone a recent treatment by Conservation Fellows Valeriia Kravchenko and Jack Chauncy. They carefully restored the paintings’ balance of light and dark, ahead of their display in our current Zurbarán exhibition.