SS. Justa and Rufina

By 1817 Goya was old, deaf and near the end of his working life in Spain, and this was one of his last major religious commissions before he left the country for France. The chapter of Seville Cathedral asked for its two patron saints, Justa and Rufina, sisters who worked as potters in Roman Seville and were killed for refusing to worship a pagan goddess. The contract set out a long list of symbols, so Goya packed them in: the clay pots of their trade, palm branches for martyrdom, a lion at Rufina's feet, and behind them the Giralda, the great bell tower that still stands over the city. He was paid 28,000 reales and delivered the canvas in January 1818.