Явление Богоматери дель Пилар

In 1775 Goya left Zaragoza for Madrid, hired to design tapestry cartoons for the royal factory of Santa Barbara under his brother-in-law Francisco Bayeu. This small panel belongs to the Aragonese work he was leaving behind. The Virgin of the Pillar is Zaragoza's own devotion, the Virgin appearing to the apostle James on a column of jasper, a story that needed no explaining to anyone from that city. Goya set her standing on the column in a burst of light, with James and his companions below. The panel reached a public collection only in 2017, at the end of a long court fight between Barcelona and the daughters of the businessman Julio Munoz Ramonet, who had left his pictures to the city.