Zurbarán’s Supernatural Visions: The Finest Loincloths Ever Painted

LONDON – A 17th-century Spanish master is taking over the National Gallery with paintings so intense they feel like visions. Francisco de Zurbarán painted supernatural scenes with startling realism, and his works still shock viewers today. The exhibition’s first painting dissolves logic. A monk kneels before a man nailed to an upside-down cross. The scene blurs the line between reality and dream. The artwork, *The Apparition of Saint Peter to Saint Peter Nolasco* (1629), on loan from the Prado, shows a religious founder receiving a mystical vision at home in Spain. The saint appears because Nolasco could not travel to Rome. This is not sentimental folk art. Zurbarán painted with such fierce belief that the impossible feels real. His style inspired surrealist Salvador Dalí, who copied his still lifes and crucifixions. Several newly attributed works include a giant mask, possibly from a stage set, that is both absurdly large and eerily lifelike. “Visionary” is an overused word, but for Zurbarán, it fits. He paints space differently, melting distance and pulling viewers into the picture. The result is a show of ecstatic visions—and what critics call the finest loincloths ever painted.