Jacob and His Twelve Sons

The depiction of Jacob, the Biblical patriarch, and his sons in epic portraits is unusual for the era. More commonly, artists, including Ribera and Velázquez, included these men in narrative painting of Biblical episodes.^[2] There are two reasons to believe that the paintings may have been intended for a patron in Spanish America: firstly, Zurbarán was an active exporter of paintings to the New World, and secondly, there was an idea current in seventeenth-century Spain that the indigenous people of the Americas were the descendants of the "Ten Lost Tribes".^[3]

According to art historian Jeannine Baticle, a series of Jacob and his sons survives in the possession of the Orden Tercera de San Francisco in Lima, Peru, which she describes as a "fairly close replica" of the Auckland Zurbarán series. An additional series, "a more distant and awkward imitation", is in the possession of the Academia de Bellas Artes in Puebla, Mexico.^[2]

It is not known how the paintings reached England, although some speculate that they may have been captured by English pirates while being transported from the painter's studio in Seville to a buyer in a Spanish colony in the Americas.^[2]

The series is first recorded in 1722 as part of the estate of one William Chapman.^[2] It was later owned by London banker James Mendez, a Jewish merchant of Portuguese descent^[4], whose heirs sold twelve of the thirteen to Richard Trevor, Bishop of Durham in 1757.^[5] Bishop Trevor, a political liberal and a backer of the Jewish Naturalization Act 1753, acquired the paintings, and redesigned and reconstructed the Long Dining Room at Auckland Castle, as a public statement of his support for Jewish naturalization rights.^[6] Although the Act was quickly repealed, the paintings remained in the Long Dining Room at Auckland Castle.^[6]

The portrait of one of Jacob's sons, Benjamin, was not included in the sale, perhaps because the sellers identified with the tribe of Benjamin.^[5] It was sold separately to Peregrine Bertie, 3rd Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven;^[2] it hangs in Grimsthorpe Castle, Lincolnshire.^[7] Bishop Trevor commissioned Arthur Pond to produce a copy painting of "Benjamin". It hangs, with Jacob and the other eleven sons, in the room designed for them more than two and a half centuries ago.^[8][9]

• 
  Jacob
• 
  Reuben
• 
  Simeon
• 
  Levi
• 
  Judah
• 
  Dan
• 
  Naphtali
• 
  Gad
• 
  Asher
• 
  Issachar
• 
  Zebulun
• 
  Joseph
• 
  Benjamin