Spanish Art in County Durham
By Richard Jacques
La Perra de Graus by Francisco Bayeu y Subías, c. 1788-89, The Spanish Gallery, Bishop Auckland (Image: courtesy of the author)
It may surprise many to learn that the beautiful corner of North East England that is County Durham possesses one of the largest concentrations of Spanish art outside of Spain. Most famous among its works are Francisco de Zurbarán’s series of paintings of Jacob and his Twelve Sons, acquired in 1756 by Richard Trevor, then the powerful Prince Bishop of Durham, who bought the paintings to adorn the dining room of his newly refurbished country retreat at Bishop Auckland Castle. Today, alongside these canvases, significant holdings of Spanish art can be found at The Bowes Museum, Ushaw College, Durham Cathedral, Durham Castle, Raby Castle, and the recently established Spanish Gallery. The latter is the UK’s first gallery wholly devoted to the artistic output of the Iberian peninsula.
Making these collections better known and understood is the ambitious task of a new virtual exhibition platform created by Durham University’s Zurbarán Centre for Spanish and Latin American Art. Its first exhibition, Spanish Art in County Durham, seeks to put the spotlight on around 50 artworks, ranging from altarpieces to lithographs and produced by artists as diverse as El Greco, Murillo, Goya and Dalí. The exhibition’s objects and images have been grouped together in five thought-provoking galleries, ranging across the themes of people and places, power and authority, suffering and pain, love and devotion, and animals and objects. These galleries are intended to encourage the viewer both to draw fresh insights about the nature of the highlighted works and to gain a better understanding of the diversity and richness of Spanish art during the last 500 years.
For example, in the gallery on animals and objects, visitors can learn how Zurbarán both used animals to convey the biblical attributes of Jacob’s sons and as a framing device to bring the viewer into an expansive imaginary field of vision. The gallery also explores how Francisco Bayeu’s portrayal of lone dog speaks to Spain’s longstanding obsession with blood purity and the discrimination practiced against those with Jewish and Muslim ancestry. Each artwork is accompanied by an informative gallery label and a detailed catalogue entry, allowing the curious viewer to delve deeper into the background of each work and the people who made them.
The exhibition has been co-curated by Andy Beresford and Claudia Hopkins, in collaboration with a number of the Zurbarán Centre’s doctoral students and fellows. Alongside bringing County Durham’s unique patrimony to wider prominence, the Zurbarán Centre is also keen to research how audiences understand and respond to individual artworks. Visitors to the exhibition are therefore encouraged to leave feedback on what they see. This can be a simple thumbs up or down, or hopefully more considered reactions to the works on display. These comments will not appear on the website, but they will be gathered and analysed as part of the Zurbarán Centre’s ongoing investigation of the reception and meaning of Spanish art.
Richard Jacques is a doctoral student in art history at Durham University. His research, which is supported by the Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica, examines affective power and sensory perception in the works of Francisco de Zurbarán.
January 2023