Zurbar\u00e1n
The National Gallery
May 2\u2013August 23, 2026
London<\/p>\n
A couple of rooms into Zurbar\u00e1n, a new monographic exhibition dedicated to the Spanish Baroque master (b. 1598; d. 1664) on view at the National Gallery in London, the visitor is met with a series of saints.<\/p>\n
The left-hand corner of the gallery is dominated by images of Saint Francis, humbly-clad and set against a dark background. The right wall, by contrast, is filled with depictions of virgin saints dressed in heavy brocades and the finest contemporaneous fashion. Devoid of any distinct psychology, these latter paintings appear to function mostly as a vehicle for Zurbar\u00e1n\u2019s virtuosic ability to render every pleat and fold of fabric. Indeed, not long after these works were painted, they drew the ire of Jesuit theologian Bernardino de Villegas, who wasn\u2019t far off the mark when he said, \u201cin their apparel and adornments they do not seem to be saints of the heavens, but ladies of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Zurbar\u00e1n\u2019s time, Seville was caught between powerful forces. Transatlantic trade had made it Europe\u2019s richest city, the gateway to the Americas, and yet, at the same time, it remained firmly in the thrall of the Catholic Counter-Reformation and religious orders who\u2014following the Council of Trent\u2019s decree on images\u2014sought to harness the worldly art of painting as a tool to inspire otherworldly devotion.<\/p>\n
What makes Zurbar\u00e1n\u2019s art compelling is the co-presence of these two distinct, almost mutually exclusive impulses. Here, sacred and profane don\u2019t exactly exist side by side; rather, the latter is used as the manifestation of the former, a means to intensify its spiritual truth. That\u2019s why, even when Zurbar\u00e1n\u2019s subject matter seems symptomatic of a retrograde theology very much at odds with more contemporary secular sensibilities, we can\u2019t help but be enthralled by the way the painter renders it.<\/p>\n
For a case in point, look no further than the exhibition\u2019s first gallery, and the first of Zurbar\u00e1n\u2019s many crucifixions. The Crucifixion (1627) is flanked on opposite sides of the room by The Apparition of Saint Peter to Saint Peter Nolasco (1629) and Saint Serapion (1628), both of which similarly communicate holiness by contaminating it with elements of all-too-human pathos. Similarly, the crucifixion between them depicts Jesus not as an abstract entity, but as a man of flesh and blood exquisitely staged against a pitch-black background, his muscles tensed by the suffering he is experiencing. Widely considered Zurbar\u00e1n\u2019s early masterpiece, this painting caused a stir when it was first shown\u2014hidden behind a grille in the dimly lit monastery of San Pablo el Real, it was often mistaken by visitors for a sculpture\u2014and its reception, in part, led to Zurbar\u00e1n being invited to relocate from his native Extremadura to Seville.<\/p>\n
Although they don\u2019t follow a strict chronological order, the three galleries that follow capture Seville at its apogee\u2014commissions were coming thick and fast. The first of these rooms is dedicated to works which Zurbar\u00e1n realized for different religious orders. Three pictures included here are being displayed together for the first time in 175 years, but belonged originally to a monumental altarpiece painted for a monastery in Jerez de la Frontera, near C\u00e1diz. The second room reunites single-figure pictures of saints produced for both religious orders and private patrons, while the third brings together religious scenes such as the Immaculate Conception and the Crucifixion, both motifs Zurbar\u00e1n would be asked to depict time and again throughout his career (fifteen and twelve times respectively, to be precise.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zurbar\u00e1nThe National GalleryMay 2\u2013August 23, 2026London A couple of rooms into Zurbar\u00e1n, a new monographic exhibition dedicated to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325641,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[1149,3458,3457,3459,3456,2878,98,3461,3462,100,99,3455,17,1117,3465,749,2538,9,3463,24,63,3460,3464,905],"class_list":["post-325640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-art","tag-art-books","tag-art-critic","tag-art-reviews","tag-artists","tag-books","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-art","tag-brooklyn-culture","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-contemporary-art","tag-culture","tag-dance","tag-fiction","tag-film","tag-music","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-art-scene","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-phong-bui","tag-poetry","tag-theater"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}