Saint Christopher

Commissioned from the aragonese painter around 1767 by Juan Martín de Goicoechea, a prominent figure in Zaragoza during the Enlightenment and a friend and patron of Goya during his early artistic years.

Aesthetically, the painting belongs to the late baroque aragonese school, yet it features tonal effects, lighting, and a softness in the anatomical and expressive rendering that already reveal the rococo sensibility the young Goya was absorbing. This painting, which has always been in the possession of successive generations of the Goicoechea family, is of great importance for gaining a better understanding of Goya’s artistic beginnings in Zaragoza.