A Pilgrimage to San Isidro

This painting (La Romeria de San Isidro) was originally in the ground floor room of the Quinta del Sordo.

The Pilgrimage to San Isidro filled one long wall of the Quinta, opposite a painting called The Great He-Goat or Witches’ Sabbath in the downstairs room of the house. Goya may have been prompted to paint this subject by the fact that the Quinta was built in the neighbourhood of the Hermitage of San Isidro and by the recollection of having painted the Hermitage and the Meadow of San Isidro in happier, earlier days. Without knowledge of the title, however, it would be hard to identify the procession of figures moving forward, their features becoming clearer and more awful as they get near, as a procession of pilgrims. Goya’s viewpoint in this painting must have been close to that in the Meadow scene, but there is no view of the city in the background.