The Zurbaran collection in Auckland Castle tells the Old Testament story of the Blessings of Jacob. Chris Lloyd explores the background of these paintings.

THE ARTIST

FRANCISCO DE ZURBARAN was born in 1598 in Spain. In 1634, he was appointed Honorary Painter to King Philip IV, who hailed him as the king of painters. Zurbaran became renowned for his huge depictions of religious stories, often spread over several paintings.

In the 1640s, fashions changed and Zurbaran’s star waned. To make ends meet, he painted job lots of virgin martyrs, saints and patriachs for the more traditional Roman Catholic churches and monasteries in South America. His work can today be found in Lima, Peru and Puebla, Mexico.

But the US income didn’t ease Zurbaran’s personal problems. His first two wives died, along with five of the six children he had with his third wife. Then in 1649, his son Juan, who was his great supporter, died of the plague.

Zurbaran moved to Madrid where he died, on August 27, 1664, in poverty and obscurity.

His reputation was restored by Napoleon Bonaparte 150 years later. He invaded Spain and Portugal and plundered artworks from religious institutions. He liked Zurbaran’s works and put them on display in the Louvre, in Paris.

THE PAINTINGS

AUCKLAND Castle’s collection tells the Old Testament story of the Blessings of Jacob. It is a story that also has resonance in Judaism and Islam.

On his deathbed, Jacob foresaw that his 12 sons would be scattered from their homeland and each would end up leading one of the 12 tribes of Israel.

The paintings depict the fate of each son, with the 13th showing Jacob leaning on his stick, old and weighed down by the passage of time.

Zurbaran painted the set in the 1640s, at the time of the Spanish Inquisition, which was rooting out non-Christian practices.

No one understands his motivation for choosing a subject that was so out of step with the times. Was he trying to be controversial?

Was he appealing for religious tolerance? Or was he being commercial and appealing to prospective buyers in three different religions?

No one knew what happened to the 13 paintings until 1720, when they were in the possession of Sir William Chapman, a director of the ill-fated South Sea Company.

In 1756, they were auctioned in Langford’s sale room in London. The buyer was the Bishop of Durham.

THE BISHOP

BISHOP Richard Trevor was born in 1707.

He went to Westminster School and then Oxford University before becoming Bishop of St David’s, in Wales. On December 29, 1752, he was enthroned as Bishop of Durham.

Bishop Trevor believed in religious, political and social tolerance, and so he persuaded his fellow bishops in the House of Lords to support the “Jew Bill” – the Jewish Naturalisation Bill which would allow Jewish immigrants to naturalise as British citizens. This support proved crucial and the Bill was passed in 1753.

However, it was deeply controversial and unpopular.

The Tories called it the abandonment of Christianity and they repealed it in 1755.

A year later, Bishop Trevor bought 12 of the 13 Zurbarans for £124. The prices ranged from £2 2s for Reuben, the eldest son, to £21 10s 6d for Issachar and Naphtali. But Benjamin somehow eluded him at the auction.

It was bought by a dealer called Jones Raymond and now hangs in Grimsthorpe Castle, Lincolnshire.

The Bishop seems not to have been an art collector.

In fact, there is no evidence that he had ever bought a painting before in his life.

But he was so desperate to complete his set of Zurbarans – quite possibly because their message of tolerance chimed with the message he had been promoting in the House of Lords – that he commissioned the foremost portrait of the day, Arthur Pond, to paint a facsimile.

He paid him £21 for the job – more than he had paid for many of the originals.

Quite how the Bishop came to miss out on the 13th painting is another of the unknowns of this story. The unChristian might note that Raymond the dealer was a close friend of Pond the artist. Perhaps the Bishop was a victim of a stitch-up between dealer and artist.

THE CASTLE

AUCKLAND Castle, on high ground above the rivers Wear and Gaunless, had been the site of an ecclesiastical building since Saxon times. The first Bishop of Durham to live there was probably Eadmund when King Canute gave him some land in 1020.

Bishop Trevor did a lot of work that we can still see on his palace.

He paid Jeremiah Dixon, of Cockfield, to lay out his deerpark.

He built the distinctive deerhouse on the Gaunless’s opposite bank, and he had the gatehouse, complete with its clock, designed by Sir Thomas Robinson, of Rokeby.

He also lengthened the Long Dining Room, adding windows, doors, fireplace and ceiling, and designing it so that it was perfectly proportioned to take these 13 super-sized paintings.

The room, therefore, is believed to be Europe’s oldest purpose-built art gallery.

But it is more than just an art gallery. It is a giant political statement.

As Prince Bishop of Durham, Trevor was the second most influential clergyman in the country.

In his castle, he entertained religious, political and military leaders from across the Continent.

They would all have dined in the Long Dining Room, listening to his words calling for religious tolerance while looking at the paintings on the wall demanding multicultural acceptance.

It is a message as relevant today as it was then, and it is a message that is at its most forceful when Zurbaran’s paintings are in Bishop Trevor’s castle.

■ Zurbarans at Auckland Castle by Robert McManners (Gemini Publications, £5) is available from Bishop Auckland Town Hall, or by calling 01388-602180.