When Peter Paul Rubens painted Miracles of St. Francis of Paola (Sketch) in 1628, he was at the height of his fame, often working for European courts and churches. What makes this sketch particularly fascinating is that it was a preparatory work for a major altarpiece, now lost, created for the church of the Minims in Madrid.

This means that the sketch is one of the few surviving witnesses to Rubens’s original vision for a commission that would have been seen by Spanish royalty and pilgrims alike. The finished painting was celebrated in its day, but only these studies remain to show us Rubens’s first thoughts and energetic hand. In this scene, Rubens chooses to capture St. Francis of Paola at the moment of performing one of his famous miracles—reviving a dead child or healing the sick, stories that spread his fame across 15th-century Italy.

The saint, clad in the simple black habit of the Minims, extends his hand in a gesture of blessing toward a supplicant, while awestruck onlookers crowd around. Rubens’s vigorous brushwork and dramatic contrasts of light focus the eye on the saint’s calm authority amid the swirling crowd, emphasizing divine intervention breaking into the everyday. Unlike the more restrained, meditative approach of Francisco de Zurbarán in his own depictions of saints, Rubens fills the composition with movement and emotion, making the miraculous feel immediate and real. Though the finished altarpiece is lost, this sketch survives as a testament to Rubens’s working process and his international reputation in the late Baroque.

The commission came at a time when Rubens was frequently traveling between Antwerp, Madrid, and London, acting not only as an artist but also as a diplomat. After its creation, the sketch remained in Spain, passing through private collections before entering the public domain. Today, it is valued both for its connection to a vanished masterpiece and as a vivid example of Rubens’s preparatory technique, offering insight into how one of Europe’s greatest painters developed his grand religious visions.