Saint Justa and Saint Rufina

Saint Justa and Saint Rufina from 1817, in the Prado, depicts the patronesses of Seville — sisters martyred in the early centuries of Christianity for refusing to participate in a pagan procession and donate their pottery to the worship of Venus — as monumental figures with Seville's Giralda tower behind them, asserting their patronage of the city through the visual anchor of its most distinctive landmark. The commission of this painting for the Seville Cathedral demonstrates that Goya was still receiving major religious commissions in his early seventies, despite the political difficulties of his position and the increasing darkness of his private work. The small Prado study records his compositional thinking before the large altar painting; comparison of the two allows insight into how he translated intimate pictorial thinking into large-scale devotional format. The subject of female martyrdom — saints who suffered death rather than compromise their convictions — carries an implicit resonance in the political context of Ferdinand VII's Spain, where compromise and conformity were the survival strategies of the liberal intelligentsia.

Goya renders the two saints with warm, naturalistic flesh tones and dignified bearing, using the traditional Sevillian iconography while bringing his characteristic lifelike vitality to the holy figures.