detail from "St. Isabella Caring for the Lepers." Photograph © Museuo Lazaro Galdiano, Madrid, Spain/Bridgeman Art Library. Reproduced with permission.

This painting, entitled "St. Isabella Caring for the Lepers," is by Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (1746 – 1828). Goya made many works with religious themes, including frescoes and oil paintings. He was also a very successful portrait painter and artist of the Spanish royal court from 1786 to 1792. This painting shows St. Isabella as queen, bandaging the foot of a woman with leprosy, in an intimate scene that emphasizes her humility and compassion. The composition is dramatic, placing her in light from the open window and compressing all of the figures into the lower half of the canvas. The work shows Goya’s free, broad brushstrokes, with figures and objects suggested rather than presented in a finished representational style (see the cover of the 15 March 2004 issue of the journal [vol. 38, no. 6]). The striking yellow of the woman’s dress is found in other Goya paintings, such as the masterpiece "The Third of May." The painting belongs to the Museo Lazaro Galdiano, Madrid, Spain. (Ann Arvin, Cover Art Editor)