Five boys play at riding on each other´s shoulders in the game called “Chicken Fights” or “Horse and Rider” in a setting of hills and woods. This work is one of the cartoons for a series of gay, playful tapestries intended for the bedrooms of the infantas —the daughters of the future Carlos IV (1748-1819) and María Luisa de Parma (1751-1788)— at the El Pardo Palace in Madrid. Goya rec
Three women have come to fill their pitchers at a fountain. Two are young and the third, middle aged. The one in the foreground, and the eldest, gaze directly at the viewer with an attentive and bold look of complicity, like the boy that accompanies them. The young women balance the pitchers on their heads with a difficult equilibrium, a traditional symbol of feminine virtue. Goya paints the pitch
This panel inlaid with mother-of-pearl executed in New Spain is part of a group of twenty-four pieces that narrate the capture of Mexico.
Hercules wades effortlessly across the powerful Euenos River while his wife, the beautiful Deianira, requires the aid of the centaur Nessus to do so. While ferrying her across, the centaur attempts to rape her. In her defense, Hercules mortally wounds Nessus with his arrows, but with his last breath, the centaur tricks Deianira, promising her that if her husband wears his shirt, he will never look
Painted in Venice, the painting is part of the series of eight scenes from the Passion of Christ comprising works P00355 to P00362. They came from the Convent of San Felipe Neri in Madrid, from where they were transferred to the Museo de la Trinidad. We have little knowledge of the conditions laid down in the contract (if one ever existed) by the secular clerics of San Felipe Neri in Madrid. There
A beautiful young woman has just married an ugly, fat man. From the side he looks like a pig, but he is clearly rich. Wearing a rather worn dress coat, the bride´s father follows the procession with an expression somewhere between resignation and complaisance. The young women, possibly friends of the bride, laugh, and the priest appears to be laughing at the father. This story, which is repe
This preparatory sketch for the ceiling of Charles III’s former bedroom at the Royal Palace in Madrid depicts the Institution of the Order of Charles III following the birth of the King’s first male grandchild. A personification of Monarchy holds the newborn Infante in its arms, and the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception, patroness of the Order, is depicted at the centre of the composition.
Painted in Venice, the painting is part of the series of eight scenes from the Passion of Christ comprising works P00355 to P00362. They came from the Convent of San Felipe Neri in Madrid, from where they were transferred to the Museo de la Trinidad. We have little knowledge of the conditions laid down in the contract (if one ever existed) by the secular clerics of San Felipe Neri in Madrid. There
Four young women laugh and play at blanket-tossing a doll or manikin in the air. The latter´s movement is the result of their caprice. Its carnival origins are visible in the use of masks and joking, but the blanket-tossing of a doll is used here by Goya as a clear allegory of women´s domination of men. The subject is frequent in the artist´s work, and examples can be found in hi
This work is an example of an exceptional iconography within the subject matter habitually dedicated to the Passion by the painter, and even within that of the European art of his time as a whole. Although his most frequent subjects were the traditional ones of the Ecce Homo (alone or accompanied by executioners, by Pontius Pilate and an executioner, or by the Virgin and St John), Christ at the Co
Two young men on high stilts head toward a window out of which a young woman leans. They are accompanied by two other young men on foot, playing the dulzaina. Groups of men wrapped in their capes and with broad-brimmed hats completely covering their faces, as well as women and children, contemplate the festive scene. As in many other works from this period, a straightforward, everyday subject cont
Peter Paul Rubens executed this painting between 1636 and 1637 on a commission from Philip IV for the Torre de la Parada. The decoration of this royal hunting pavilion, in which other artists such as Diego Velázquez participated, was the most important commission Rubens received from the Spanish monarch. Beginning in 1636, he sent more than 60 works from Antwerp to Madrid for the royal plea
Christ lies dead on a bed beside which Pope Pius V kneels, surrounded by angels. Above them, two angels hold a chalice and a communion wafer, symbols of his death and resurrection. On the lower part of the painting, the skeleton of Adam alludes to the first man and the redemption of Original Sin. Divers elements of the Passion appear on the bed and floor, such as the Crown of Thorns and the Whip.
Three boys play together, trying to climb a small tree. One of them stands on another´s back and is helped by the third. The background combines the landscape to the left with a massive castle on the right. The painting was a cartoon for one of the tapestries in Carlos IV´s office at El Escorial and bears the characteristics of Goya´s last designs, especially in the use of figure
This table has the image of a painting of a seascape and its frame, back to front, as well as playing cards, various chips, a ruler, a hammer, a compass and other carpentry tools, two buckles, a key ring and various drawings over a touchstone or black Belgian marble background. The representation of the images is directly based on famous compositions by French painter Joseph Vernet (1714-1789), wh