Lamb of God / Self-portrait 52, after Zubarán
In Zurbarán’s painting of the Lamb of God, the lamb looks at you questioningly. With one eye open, its legs tied together, the lamb awaits what is to come. When I saw this painting in real life for the first time, I was moved.
It’s like a still life in which everything seems to be fine, except you can feel that disaster is approaching. Is it the lamb’s resignation that makes this painting so powerful, telling us that there is little we can see and know for ourselves? In many respects, we are powerless.