Bordeaux Sketchbook [H], sheet 4. The drawing’s modern title refers to the action of a monk who is shown speaking sternly to a boy. His white habit and black hooded cloak identify him as a Dominican, a guardian of orthodoxy and member of this important mendicant order that existed on alms. Nonetheless, the monk is comfortably ensconced on a raised sofa, his feet inserted in a hole that is ideal for keeping them warm. He presents the child with a choice between the skull, at which he points meaningfully, and the cross, which guarantees eternal life. The young laborer, with torn trousers and hands swollen from harsh agricultural toil, responds by raising the mattock used to break heavy earth, as if to say that hard work is his fate.

Matilla, J.M. Mena M.B., Goya: dibujos. Solo la voluntad me sobra, Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2019, p.268 nº 178