{"id":660870,"date":"2026-05-23T18:09:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T18:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/660870\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T18:09:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T18:09:14","slug":"ruth-leon-recommends-zurbaran-portraits-national-gallery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/660870\/","title":{"rendered":"Ruth Leon recommends&#8230; Zurbar\u00e1n Portraits \u2013 National Gallery"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>norman lebrecht<\/p>\n<p>May 23, 2026<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalgallery.org.uk\/stories\/how-were-zurbar%C3%A1n-s-life-size-portraits-used-as-political-statements\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0Click here<\/a><\/p>\n<p>How were Zurbar\u00e1n\u2019s life-size portraits used as political statements?<br \/>The life-size portraits \u2018Asher\u2019 and \u2018Joseph\u2019 are among the first works by Francisco de Zurbar\u00e1n to arrive in Britain. Here is a look behind the scenes in the conservation studios of the National Gallery before the opening of the current Zurbaran exhibition. National Gallery curators Francesca Whitlum-Cooper and Daniel Sobrino Ralston follow the story of the two paintings, from the Spanish painter\u2019s series \u2018Jacob and his Twelve Sons\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>When the Bishop of Durham bought 12 paintings by Francisco de Zurbar\u00e1n 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, they discuss the historical significance behind these works.<\/p>\n<p>Dive even deeper behind the scenes in the Gallery\u2019s Conservation studio, where the paintings have undergone a recent treatment by Conservation Fellows Valeriia Kravchenko and Jack Chauncy. They carefully restored the paintings\u2019 balance of light and dark, ahead of their display in the Gallery\u2019s current Zurbar\u00e1n exhibition.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.nationalgallery.org.uk\/stories\/how-were-zurbar%C3%A1n-s-life-size-portraits-used-as-political-statements<\/p>\n<p><a style=\"color: #ff00ff;\" href=\"http:\/\/Ruthleon.substack.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"norman lebrecht May 23, 2026 \u00a0Click here How were Zurbar\u00e1n\u2019s life-size portraits used as political statements?The life-size portraits&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":660871,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,229,88,289214],"class_list":["post-660870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-zurbaran"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/660871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}