Royal Constantine

‘Saint Fracis Borgia at the Deathbed of an Impenitent’ by Francisco de Goya, 1788

…a damnation that is narrated in

vivid detail in an eighteenth-century account of the saint’s life

written by Cardinal Alvaro Cienfuego and entitled La heroica

vida, virtudes, y milagros del grande S. Francisco de Borja. The text,

which Goya’s painting closely matches, describes how the

carved image of the crucified Christ held by Francis, having

realized that the soul of a particular dying man could not be

saved,

… detached its [the Crucifix’s] nailed right arm, and

placing its hand in that profusely bleeding lacerated

wound in its chest, withdrew a fist filled with blood, and

hurled it with indignation at the frowning, denigrated face,

saying “Since you scorn this blood, which was shed for your

glory, let it serve for your eternal unhappiness.” Then that

pitiful man, with an awful, blasphemous shout directed

against Jesus Christ, gave up his soul, convulsed by a horrid

moan, and it was turned over to the infamous ministers of

fire and fright.

from The Expressive Body in Goya’s Saint Francis Borgia at the Deathbed of an Impenitent by Andrew Schulz