Zurbarán y sus doce hijos [Zurabrán and his twelve sons]

Zurbarán and his twelve sons recounts the history and significance of Jacob and his twelve sons, a series of thirteen paintings completed by Francisco de Zurbarán in Seville around the year 1640. They may have been intended for the New World, although nothing is known of them until they were acquired in an auction by London merchant James Mendez seventy years later. In a compelling gesture, they were acquired by Bishop of Durham Richard Trevor in 1756, when debate around a bill on the emancipation of British Jewry was raging. He hung them in his dining room in Auckland Palace, where they remain to this day. Now, thanks to the initiative of a financier from that area, Jacob and his twelve sons have become a driver of regeneration in a community in the north of England.

The documentary will be introduced by researcher Richard Jacques.

Richard Jacques is a PhD candidate in Art History at Durham University. His doctoral research, which is funded by the Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica, explores the language of suffering in the works of Francisco de Zurbarán (1598-1664), examining how the artist’s preoccupation with verisimilitude and tactile painterly effects engaged the spiritual needs and psychological drives of his viewers. Richard also holds degrees in art history from the Courtauld Institute of Art and Christian theology from Kings College London.