Apparition of the Virgin to Saint Julian (Aparición de la virgen a San Julián)

There is no specific document attesting to Goya's authorship of this painting, but today all specialists agree that it is his work following publications by Sánchez Cantón and Xavier de Salas which cleared up any doubts over their previous attribution to the Bayeus, linking it definitively to Goya, above all by pointing out its connection to a drawing of the same name by that painter.

The subject is based on the Flos Sanctorum by the Jesuit priest Pedro Ribadeneyra, which narrates the lives of the saints according to the liturgical calendar, published for the first time in 1599. It shows the Virgin crowned with flowers, dressed in a pink tunic and blue mantle. She appears to Saint Julian, the Bishop of Cuenca, who knees before the apparition, giving her the martyr's palm. To one side there is an unfinished basket, a crosier and miter, the symbols of the sainted bishop. He is elegantly dressed in a richly decorated and gilded cope. The white of his tunic stands out against the dark background. Once again we are presented with a devotional scene located in a dark room and illuminated thanks to the light radiating from the characters themselves, above all from the Virgin's halo.

Goya's versatility of technique is striking, as is the contrast between different sections of the painting: the impressionist treatment of the Virgin's crown of flowers or the Saint's cope contrasts with the attention to detail and realism of the wicker basket or Saint Julian's face.