Zurbaran: Jacob and His Twelve Sons

Featuring twelve monumental canvases by the Spanish Baroque master Francisco de Zurbarán, displayed at the Israel Museum in 2018 on loan from Auckland Castle, Durham, England, this sumptuous volume presents a wonderful opportunity to explore art from Spain’s Golden Age. Painted over a period of five years from 1640 to 1645, each one of Jacob’s sons – the founders of Israel’s twelve tribes – is depicted with his own personal attributes based on the blessings of Jacob in the book of Genesis, inviting us to contemplate the fascinating differences between the brothers. The publication – scholarly catalogue and lavish coffee-table book in one – comprises in-depth essays about Zurbarán and the series, as well as brief curatorial texts about each work accompanied by photographs that illustrate the technical analysis of the paintings, including X-rays which are as informative as they are evocative.