Zuloaga was committed to the Nationalist faction during the Spanish Civil War and the Spanish State of the "caudillo" Franco, whose portrait he painted in 1940. During the war, Zuloaga honored the defenders of the "Siege of the Alcázar" in 1936, when the building's Nationalist defenders refused to surrender despite the building being in flames. This siege, and other events such as the death of General Moscardo's son, served as a rallying cry for the Nationalist forces. In January 1939, this painting was hung in adjacent room displaying Picasso's modernist painting of Guernica during an exhibition of Spanish art in London. The nationalist content of his depiction of the Alcazar was allied to Zuloaga's celebration of folk traditions. Stylistically, the directness of the "Siege" painting also avoids modernity's challenge to realistic depictions: Fascism was not endeared to complex symbolism such as found in works such as "Guernica".