On-line gallery
- Reference number
- P07794
- Author
- Goya y Lucientes, Francisco de (Spanish)
- Title
- Saint Barbara
- Chronology
- Ca. 1773
- Technique
- Support
- Measures
- 97,2 cm x 78,5 cm
- School
- Theme
- Shown
- Yes
- Entrance
- COMPRA
- Procedence
- Acquisition, 2001
Saint Barbara was a third-century
Christian martyr imprisoned in a
tower and later decapitated by her
father, Dioscoro, as punishment for
not wanting to marry and refusing
to profess paganism. Goya depicts
the saint with her various symbols,
with a monstrance in her right hand
and the palm frond of martyrdom in
the left. She wears a crown as she
was a princess. The tower is behind
her, and a representation of her
martyrdom appears at the right edge
of the composition.
Goya painted this work shortly
after his visit to Italy and it
reveals his inspiration by both
classical statuary and
seventeenth-century classicist
Italian painting. This is
documented in his Italian notebook,
where he studied both the head and
the composition.
Location on the map
