SOLD to a PROMINENT EUROPEAN PRIVATE COLLECTION 

This remarkable painting is the second - and most recently rediscovered - version of Zurbarán's celebrated subject to have been handled by the gallery.* It first appeared at Ansorena in Madrid in 1996, accompanied by a certificate issued in 1980 by José Gudiol of the Institut Amatller d'Art Hispànic, and subsequently remained in the same Madrid private collection for nearly thirty years.

Odile Delenda, the leading authority on Zurbarán, recognised the work as an autograph painting and included it in her catalogue raisonné as a previously unpublished fifth version of the subject, dating it to circa 1635-40. The composition belongs to a group that evidently enjoyed considerable success among the artist's patrons. Rather than producing mechanical replicas of a single prototype, Zurbarán subtly reworked the motif in each painting, creating independent variations upon the same powerful idea.

The ram lies immobilised upon a stone ledge, its legs tightly bound and its body compressed by the cords. Emerging from the dark background, the animal is described with Zurbarán's characteristic economy and concentration. Its finely modelled head, illuminated by delicate touches of light, contrasts with the physical tension of its restrained body. The loose yet controlled handling and the stark simplicity of the composition give the image an extraordinary sense of immediacy, silence and resignation.

The religious meaning of the present work is not made explicit by an inscription, halo or accompanying attribute. The bound animal may evoke Christ as the sacrificial Lamb of God; alternatively, as Delenda observed, the presence of a ram rather than a lamb could allude to the animal sacrificed by Abraham in place of Isaac. This iconographic ambiguity heightens the painting's contemplative force, allowing it to function simultaneously as an intensely naturalistic animal study and as a profound meditation on obedience and sacrifice.

* The first version, signed and dated Franc.o Dez … / 1631, is published by Odile Delenda as no. 39 in her catalogue raisonné for the Wildenstein Institute (see here). According to Delenda's chronology, it would appear to be the earliest known version of the series. Click here for further details on this other version.