PROVENANCE: The Convent of St. Miguel de los Angeles, Villadiego; The Convent of Santa Clara, Villadiego; Collection of a Spanish Nobleman; Clyde Newhouse, Newhouse Galleries, 1953; BJU, 1953.

The present panel is a rare American-owned work by Juan de Flandes, a Flemish artist influenced by Gerard David who became court painter to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. He remained in the service of the court until the queen's death in 1504. Thereafter he worked for churches in Salamanca and Palencia . He is considered the greatest Flemish artist ever to work in Spain .

Apparently the Augustinian Convent of St. Miguel de los Angeles commissioned de Flandes to grace their walls with a picture of the patron saint of their order. The church father St. Augustine is paired with St. Roch, an early 14 th -century saint with a curious legend of healing. Tradition says that he went about northern Italy miraculously curing plague victims. Eventually contracting the disease at Piacenza and unable to heal himself, St. Roch withdrew to the forest to die. While he lay dying, a dog from a nearby town befriended him and brought him a fresh roll from his master's house each day. One legend says that the dog's owner, noticing this strange ritual, followed the dog and nursed St. Roch back to health. Another legend (shown here) describes an angel that healed Roch by pouring ointment on his wound. Since St. Roch, after his canonization in 1418, became known as the patron saint of plague victims, the nuns of the Convent of St. Miguel may have sought protection from the dread disease by including him in the painting.