Goya's paintings

Goya began his artistic career at the age of fourteen (1760) when he became an apprentice in the workshop of the Zaragoza painter Jose Luzán. There he learnt the rudiments of paintings and drawing, copying still lifes and devotional works.
While trying with little luck to obtain a grant to study in Madrid, Goya painted to commission for the Jesuits, the Hospitallers and members of the Aragonese nobility. His ecclesiastical clients helped him to make his journey to Italy in 1771, where he undertook studies of a classical nature with mythological or conventional themes as subject matter.
After his return from Italy, Goya went back to Zaragoza. He painted some interesting religious works in churches in Muel, Calatayud and Remolinos,and in the palace of the Duke of Sobradiel. Outstanding works of the period would include the paintings in the chapel of the Carthusian monastery of the Aula Dei, and the painting in the Coreto (little choir) of the Basilica del Pilar, both in Zaragoza.