{"id":416314,"date":"2026-04-29T08:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T08:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/416314\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T08:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T08:28:09","slug":"zurbaran-review-sumptuous-deeply-weird-this-show-is-a-must-see","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/416314\/","title":{"rendered":"Zurbar\u00e1n review \u2014 sumptuous, deeply weird, this show is a must-see"},"content":{"rendered":"

The National Gallery\u2019s Zurbar\u00e1n exhibition opens with a spectacular piece of stagecraft. The first room is dark as a sepulchre. Directly ahead of you is the crucified Christ. No mourners gather, no friends or followers loosen his ropes or rush to lower him. Night has fallen on Golgotha. To your right, St Serapion slumps unconscious, arms pulled back by his bonds. To your left is St Peter, pained, emaciated, crucified upside down, the blood rushing to his head. You are no longer a tourist or a ticket-holder but a witness. If you can, book a 10am slot and be first through the doors. The effect of these three painted apparitions together is enough to convert a heathen on the spot.<\/p>\n

\"PaintingSaint Serapion, 1628 Photo: The National Gallery, London\/Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut<\/p>\n

I confess I had Zurbar\u00e1n all wrong. The Zurbar\u00e1n I knew was the Zurbar\u00e1n of the National Gallery\u2019s out-at-the-elbows\u00a0Saint Francis in Meditation, all shadows and fustian, sackcloth and patches. I had not expected how sumptuous this exhibition would be, or how strange.<\/p>\n

Zurbar\u00e1n was born in 1598 in Fuente de Cantos but spent most of his life in Seville. He was a friend and contemporary of Vel\u00e1zquez, while Murillo was 20 years younger. Together they are considered the three greats of 17th-century Spanish painting. Zurbar\u00e1n painted principally for Seville\u2019s religious orders but also for private patrons and the King of Spain. His father traded in textiles, and the young Zurbar\u00e1n was apprenticed to a \u201cpintor de imaginer\u00eda\u201d (a painter of sculpted images). He would dazzle with his depiction of fabrics and amaze with his treatment of volume. When you look at his crucifixions you don\u2019t just confront them, you feel sure you could walk round the back of them.<\/p>\n

\"OilThe Crucified Christ with a Painter, c 1650Museo Nacional Del Prado<\/p>\n

Come for the cowls but stay for the tassels, the trimmings, the fringes and ties. The infant Christ ought to be the focus of Zurbar\u00e1n\u2019s\u00a0Circumcision, on loan from the Mus\u00e9e de Grenoble, but all I could look at were the bells sewn into the rabbi\u2019s hem and the twisted ribbon threaded through his robe. You will notice the same trick \u2014 it might even be the same tassel \u2014 in the Joseph on loan from Auckland Palace. It is hard to warm to Zurbar\u00e1n\u2019s female saints, with their pinched and sulky faces, but there is no doubt they know how to dress. Zurbar\u00e1n\u2019s conjuring of brocade and sheepskin, linen and plaited straw is ravishing. When it came to his still-life paintings, I wanted to stroke the glazes and test the weight of the water jugs. <\/p>\n

As for the strangeness, whoa. His paintings are weird. In the\u00a0Vision of Blessed Alonso Rodriguez, Zurbar\u00e1n has Christ and the Virgin holding their own hearts \u2014 they look like holy whoopee cushions \u2014 and squeezing rays of light from them. Other artists do rings of cherubs. Only Zurbar\u00e1n would have Christ rest his foot on the forehead of one of these floating baby heads.<\/p>\n

As an exhibition it is not an easy win \u2014 you wouldn\u2019t want a postcard of those grisly visions in the first room \u2014 but it is masterfully put together, and with more than enough beauty, embroidery and lustrous colour to balance the visions of anguish.
\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605
National Gallery, London, May 2 to Aug 23 (nationalgallery.org.uk<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The National Gallery\u2019s Zurbar\u00e1n exhibition opens with a spectacular piece of stagecraft. The first room is dark as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416315,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[437,434,435,436,438,146,85,46],"class_list":["post-416314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}