Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556); founder of the Jesuit Order; canonised, 1622. DFG148 refers to his miracles (the curing of the possessed woman, the woman whose withered arm was healed when she washed the Saint's linen) and probably, in the women and children, to his role as intercessor in difficult births. The painting seems to be an autograph 'modello' for Rubens's altarpiece of the Miracles of Saint Ignatius, painted for the chapel of St Ignatius in the Jesuit church of Sant'Ambrogio, Genoa, c.1619 (Jaffé, no.517). Although the picture is rejected by Vlieghe as a copy, the attribution to Rubens is accepted by Jaffé and Held. This view is supported by the presence of underlying figures (upside down in relation to the present composition) that are revealed in the X-ray.
