The Miracles of Saint Ignatius of Loyola

Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556), painted by the Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), is depicted standing with his arms outstretched and clad in a gleaming gold garment known as a chasuble. A hazy halo of golden rays encircles his head while, directly above, a little cherub with golden curls (a putto, in Italian) looks down on him – thereby connecting Ignatius with the heavenly realm. There are three miracles depicted here. On the left side, a possessed woman violently throws back her head, pulling at her long-loose hair as she is held by the central figure of a man with his back to the viewer. His bare, dirty foot is closest to the viewer, a stark reminder of the shared earthly realm contrasting with the hint of celestial light at the top of the painting.  The second miracle, to the right, involves the old washer woman whose withered arm has been restored after she washed the saint's linen. She holds up the cloth in testament and gratitude. Thirdly, in the figures of the women, children, and babies, is a reference to the saint’s role as intercessor in difficult births, and in the foreground on the right Rubens depicts a young mother seemingly amazed at the coming to life of her infant lying on the ground before her. All are shown in receipt of the healing power emanating from the saint’s hands, while the rest of those assembled plead with clasped hands for him to intercede with their various petitions. The group of darkly clothed figures, standing behind Saint Ignatius on the stone altar, appear to be church officials paying witness to the proceedings.

This painting is a preparatory oil sketch (or modello, in Italian), a format frequently used by Rubens through which to show a patron what the final, larger picture would look like. This modello was painted in preparation for Rubens' altarpiece of the Miracles of Saint Ignatius, for the chapel of the Jesuit church of Sant'Ambrogio, Genoa, Italy around 1619. The final painting, still in situ, demonstrates that some compositional changes were made since the original oil sketch. The most notable change in the final altarpiece was to the saint’s head, so that rather than looking outwards, as in this oil sketch, he was made to look heavenwards and with the circle of light known as an aureole removed. Ignatius was finally made a saint by Pope Gregory XV on 12 March 1622, and images of him performing his miracles were necessary as records to legitimise his canonisation as a new saint to the worshippers. Saint Ignatius, originally from Spain, was the  founder of the Jesuit Order or Society of Jesus created by the Roman Catholic Church as a new dynamic force. In a countermove to the Protestant Reformation which swept sixteenth-century Europe, the Catholic Church intensified the veneration of its established and new saints. Rubens became the most sought after and prolific painter of saints and their dedicated altarpieces, images which were in demand in Catholic areas of Europe.