Saint Isidore the Farmer

Saint Isidore the Farmer is the work of the Aragonese artist Jusepe Leonardo Chabacier, a native of Calatayud and member of the Leonardo de Argensola Family, who carried out his artistic activity in Madrid. This work dating from the early days of Baroque painting portrays the 12th-century saint from Madrid who was a farm labour in the service of Juan de Vargas, shown kneeling and imploring at his feet. The rounded figure of the saint is shown working one of the miracles attributed to him: he pierces the ground with a cattle prod to bring forth water in order to quench the thirst of his master, Juan de Vargas, on a summer's day. In the middle ground is a depiction of another of the saint's miracles: angels help the saint to plough the fields with oxen, as he had spent too much time in prayer. The background shows the landscape in the vicinity of Madrid, with the Segovia Bridge over the River Manzanares and the Alcazar of the Habsburgs, a royal residence remodelled by Juan Gómez de Mora between 1614 and 1620. Leonardo would have painted it shortly after the saint's canonisation, which took place in 1622.