Bartolomé Bermejo review – the satanic fears of a paranoid age

National Gallery, London
A Spanish Jew born in a Muslim city who was forced to convert to Christianity – no wonder these Inquisition-era paintings of religious triumph reveal nightmarish twists

Bartolomé Bermejo painted the most outlandish face in the whole of the National Gallery. Its glass eyes, like evil snowglobes, contain bloody discs pierced by jet black holes. There’s an owl-like beak, the ears of a bat, and a widely grinning mouth full of lethal-looking teeth.

It grabs you. Maybe we are drawn to extreme and troubled art that mirrors our fearful age

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