Apparition of the Virgin of Pilar to Santiago and his disciples Zaragoza

Clouds part above a group of kneeling men as the Virgin appears to Saint James in Roman Zaragoza. This small canvas is one of the earliest works by the young Goya, painted when he was barely twenty-two.

The story behind the painting

The Apparition of the Virgin of Pilar to Saint James and his Disciples of Zaragoza is an early work by Francisco de Goya, painted between 1768 and 1769; Wikidata gives 1768. Its composition and iconography are thought to echo Goya's first paintings made in Fuendetodos, his birthplace, which were destroyed during the Spanish Civil War. The canvas was brought to light by the historian Jose Gudiol in 1970. It came from the collection of Juan Martin de Goycoechea y Galarza and later passed by inheritance into the Pascua y Quinto collection in Zaragoza.

What to look for

The picture, about 79 by 55 cm, shows the Virgin of the Pillar, the apostle James the Greater and some of his disciples in Caesaraugusta, Roman Zaragoza. The composition is built as a pyramid, a scheme Goya repeated throughout his career. Gudiol stressed its vigorous lines and triangles, the contrasts of light and shade, near and far, and the rhythms created through clouds and groups of figures. He also pointed to the tactile quality of the cloaks of the foreground figures, and to expressive distortions that spare not even the Virgin's face.

Meaning and intent

According to Catholic tradition, in the year 40 the Virgin Mary appeared to Saint James in Zaragoza to encourage him in preaching in Hispania. The painting shows the influence of Goya's teacher Jose Luzan. Valeriano Bozal argued that nothing in it is typical of Goya and that nothing of Goya's own survives from those years, so it is safer to call it a youthful work. Jose Luis Morales y Marin described a Luzan-like oil moving toward the brighter tones of Francisco Bayeu.

Legacy

The canvas forms a pair with the Triple Generation and shares its style with The Adoration of the Name of God in the choir of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar, with the Baptism of Christ, and with the Portrait of Juan Martin de Goycoechea. All these works passed down through the Countess of Sobradiel. On 14 January 1996 it became the only Goya painting ever exhibited in Fuendetodos, the village where he was born, and it was shown that year at the Museum of Zaragoza.