COUNTY Durham, with its rich industrial heritage, might not appear an obvious place for a gallery dedicated to art of the Spanish Golden Age.
Yet it is a surprising perfect location.
The county was home to the mighty Prince Bishops and Auckland Castle, in Bishop Auckland, was their country seat.
In 1756 Bishop Richard Trevor bought a remarkable series of Old Testament paintings by the Francisco de Zurbarán, of Jacob and His Twelve Sons.
Read more: A UK first when Spanish Gallery opens in Bishop Auckland
He managed to buy 12 of the 13 and later commissioned a copy of the final one, of Benjamin, and they have hung in the Long Dining Room at Auckland Castle for the 265 years since.
It was their sale by the Church Commissioners which first brought Christian financier Jonathan Ruffer to the town and he ended up buying the paintings and the castle, for what would become the regeneration charity The Auckland Project, which opens the latest of its cultural attractions today.
The Spanish Gallery, Bishop Auckland Picture: SARAH CALDECOTT
A recreation of the Long Dining Room at Auckland Castle, and the famous Zurbaran paintings
And when visitors walk through its doors the first painting they will see is the original Benjamin, loaned to the gallery by The Grimsthorpe & Drummond Castle Trust, in same town as his brothers for the first time since they were parted at auction nearly 300 years ago.
Zurbaran is just one of the leading artists of the 16th and 17th century whose work is in the new gallery.
El Greco, Murillo, Velázquez and lesser-known artists such as Maíno, Cerezo, Valdés Leal and Van der Hamen also appear in the venue’s ten gallery spaces – mostly from Mr Ruffer’s private collection or acquired by the Zurbaran Trust for the gallery along with some exceptional loan pieces from private owners and prestigious institutions.
A portrait study of Camillo Astalli known as Cardinal Pamphili by Diego Velázquez, and Jonathan Ruffer, below, discussing La Perra de Graus, right
Camillo Astalli known as Cardinal Pamphili at The Spanish Gallery, Bishop Auckland, on loan from the Hispanic Society Museum & Library in New York
“If we were doing a list of the top 150 pictures in the world some of these might make the cut,” said Mr Ruffer.
All the gallery’s exhibits have stories to tell including tales from Spain of politics, religion and loss which still resonate today.
The Spanish Gallery, Bishop Auckland Picture: SARAH CALDECOTT
Talking about a painting of a dog, by Francisco Bayeu, Mr Ruffer said: “I find this one very poignant.
“The Royal pack was struggling because of in-breeding and they found this dog to strengthen the bloodline, then they started to worry about its pedigree and changed their mind.
“To me that sums up all of the travails of Spain.”
Other Spanish art connections in the region include Rokeby Park, near Barnard Castle, which once held the only surviving nude painting by Veláquez, the Rokery Venus, which is now in the National Gallery in London, and there are significant collections held at the Bowes Museum.
Alongside the new gallery, a partnership with Durham University has seen the creation of the Zurbarán Centre for Spanish and Latin American Art and Culture to pursue academic research in relation to the Gallery’s collections.
Camillo Astalli known as Cardinal Pamphili at The Spanish Gallery, Bishop Auckland Picture: SARAH CALDECOTT
Mr Ruffer added: “It has been a long journey, but my hope, which is pipe dream country, is that in ten years’ time, anybody who wants to study Spanish art of this period, comes to do it in Bishop Auckland.
“There is intense humanity, and deep feeling, in the paintings of this period. When I see them, my whole being responds.
“You see the fragility of life at every turn – man grasping for something eternal, for something that lasts. Yet everywhere you look, there is transience.”
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