As a new National Gallery show opens, William Cook makes a pilgrimage to Seville, where the painter spent 35 years
In a historic convent in Seville hangs one of the most arresting crucifixion scenes I’ve ever seen. For 200 years, The Crucified Christ by Francisco de Zurbarán (1598-1664) was concealed behind an iron grill in a gloomy sacristy, but now it’s revealed in all its stark and simple glory. And this summer it travels to London’s National Gallery as part of the first big British exhibition devoted to the artist. Here in Spain, Zurbarán is renowned, but in Britain he’s not nearly so well known, and the main reason is religion. He painted chiefly for the Catholic Church, and many of his patrons were religious orders – not so accessible or attractive to British art lovers as the royal portraits of Diego Velázquez. The first (and last) that many Britons will have heard of Zurbarán is when, in 2011, the Church of England proposed to sell off several Zurbaráns, housed...
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