Christ dying on the cross

The Aragonese artist Felipe Abás, native of Calaceite, in the province of Teruel, was Goya's student and assistant from 1797 until his death in 1813. In 1804 he made a copy of The Crucifixion, the work which led to Goya's appointment in May 1780 as a permanent member of San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts with merit in painting, with dimensions similar to those of the original. As a result of making this splendid copy, Abás was made a provisional member of the San Luis Royal Academy of Noble and Fine Arts of Zaragoza on 1 February 1805. The original by Goya, now on display at the Prado Museum, was then to be found in the church of San Francisco El Grande in Madrid. Abás was able to mirror in his exact copy the Neoclassical Academic style in which Goya painted his work, inspired by Mengs' painting The Crucifixion. The expression of agony shown by Christ before taking his last breath is successfully portrayed, with loose brushstrokes on the beard and the rest of the head, contrasting with the smoothness of the paint on the perfectly modelled nude body.