San Luis Gonzaga

By 1798 Goya had been deaf for about five years, ever since the illness that nearly killed him, and he was one of the painters to the Spanish king. That year he was in Madrid filling the dome of San Antonio de la Florida with a crowd of ordinary Madrileños. This small devotional picture belongs to the quieter side of his output: Aloysius Gonzaga, an Italian Jesuit who died at 23 nursing plague victims in Rome and was later made the patron saint of young students. Goya had grown up near Zaragoza, and the painting has stayed in the city, where it hangs today.