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Goya in Madrid

Museo Nacional del Prado. Madrid 11/28/2014 - 5/3/2015

Goya came to Madrid in January 1775 in order to take part in the Project to Create Tapestry Cartoons for the Royal Residences, under the direction of Anton Raphael Mengs, the Chief Court Painter and Art Director at the Royal Tapestry Factory of Santa Bárbara. However, Goya's recognition at Court did not come until eleven years later, when he was appointed Painter to the King in 1786, and then named as Chief Court Painter in conjunction with Maella in 1799.

The artist received seven commissions for cartoons, in whose compositions he reflected all the diversity of the common people in a series of scenes packed with merriment and enlivened with amusements, games, children and festivities, but also with violence, deception and sadness, scenes in which desire and seduction serve as the backdrop for life. Goya managed to create an extensive range of sentiments due to his extraordinary capacity to capture the rich diversity of human nature and different types of male and female attire, not to mention his ability to suggest endless situations.

This exhibition brings together Goya's cartoons with those of other artists, whilst also exhibiting paintings and sculptures that served as models for his startlingly new and innovative creations. Goya did not conceive his tapestry cartoons as secondary paintings, but as a metaphoric invention of society, using them to feel his way towards subsequent creations that were to bring him fame, such as the etchings that make up the series known as the Caprichos or "Caprices".

Manuela Mena, Head Curator of the Goya and 18th Century Art Department, and Gudrun Maurer, Curator of the Goya and 18th Century Painting Department at the Museo del Prado


Room A and B. Jerónimos Building

Sponsored by:
Fundación AXA




Hunter Loading His Gun
Francisco de Goya
Oil on canvas, 292 x 50 cm, 1775
Museo Nacional del Prado

This section maintains the original order in terms of its selection of cartoons, given that it makes up a specific genre in itself and because the richness of Goya's cartoons and those of other artists who took part in this project will be the subject of a specific study over the next few years, as anticipated by our exhibition of the X-ray and infrared reflectography of the cartoon entitledCazador cargando su escopeta("Hunter Loading His Gun"), which enable us to gain a unique insight into Goya's creative process. Here we are dealing with the early series of hunting cartoons created for the bedrooms of Charles III at El Escorial in 1775-76.

1. Royal Hunters

The Spanish monarchs enjoyed hunting as their favourite and exclusive past-time. Hunting had also served as a metaphor for good government and sovereign courage since Antiquity, as reflected in the Education of Achilles by the workshop of Rubens. Hunting books illustrated the great deeds of kings and princes and explained the complexities of big-game hunting, which prepared them for violent battle and war strategies. These were accompanied by portraits of monarchs dressed in hunting attire, which were used to decorate their palaces. Goya was able to find examples of these portraits in the Royal Collection, including works by Velasquez, as well as depictions of shooting parties, such as the work featuring Charles V by Cranach. These paintings provided him with models for creating his own portrayals.

2. Hunting Parties

The hunting scenes painted by Goya formed part of a set of fourteen tapestry cartoons destined for the Dining Hall of the Prince and Princess of Asturias at El Escorial, five of which were created by Ramón Bayeu under the guidance of his brother, Francisco. Given that these paintings were produced in the eighteenth century, the scenes went beyond the models that had been used up until that time by Dutch painters such as Wouwerman. Goya's works are of a documentary nature, which means that they do not convey an ideal image of society, as in Vista de la Albufera ("View of the Albufera") by Carnicero. Nevertheless, the figures are inspired by Classical art and the animals are inspired by the naturalist hunting scenes of Snyders. In this respect, Goya masterfully combined the concept of ideal beauty with the human and profane character of hunting.

3. Rest During the Hunt

Hunting dogs featured prominently in numerous works, including depictions of fables such as that of Phaedrus as painted by De Vos, in which a greyhound embodies the vice of greed, given that, upon seeing its form reflected in the water of a river, the dog drops its prey in order to possess the deceptive image, thus losing its trophy in the end. Goya endowed his dogs with an almost human naturalness. They proudly rest alongside the hunting equipment, as in Perros en traílla ("Dogs on the Leash"), or impassively observe the birds which, at the same time as they attack a little owl, are on the verge of falling into a trap in Caza con reclamo ("Hunting with a Decoy"). A similar scene is depicted by Snyders in A Concert of Birds, although here it is the little owl that directs the birds, which are also considered to be parodies of the human being.

Goya's compositions, Perros en traílla and Caza con reclamo present a greater degree of realism than Ramón Bayeu's work, with which they were grouped, including Naturaleza muerta con un jabalí ("Still Life with a Wild Boar"), which was also conceived as an overdoor painting. This work has a sublime appeal, as suggested by the tree that points towards the distance, a traditional reference to the universal. Of very different character is the Bodegón de caza ("Hunting Still Life") by Nani, in which two plucked quails contrast with two partridges that have yet to be de-feathered, accompanied by a hare. The presence of a hat in this work indicates that this is a "hunter at rest" scene, a theme that Goya includes in his Four Seasons series. In Goya's version of the scene, a hunter meditates in front of a spring, which in the cycle of the seasons symbolises rebirth and eternal life, although the sense of unease in the hunter's expression shows through.


Game of Battledore and Shuttlecock
Real Laboratorio de Piedras Duras del Buen Retiro
Mosaic. Gilt-bronze, chalcedony, lapis lazuli, 95 x 176 x 100 cm
c. 1782-1788
Museo Nacional del Prado

In this section, Goya highlights the more real facets of some of the popular amusements and games that the reformers of the Enlightenment considered healthy and ideal for the physical and moral development of the people, such as cards, the origin of much deceit and confrontation. Like no other artist he also captures the local life of the young people of Madrid, who called themselves "majos" and "majas".

1. Games

The reformers of the Enlightenment granted considerable importance to public amusements, given that they believed they would favour correct social relations, develop the skills of young people and children and distance men from vice. Goya devoted a large number of works to the theme of games throughout his life, although his attitude towards them was always ambiguous. Compared to the works of Charles-Joseph Flipart, Goya'sJuego de pelota a pala ("The Game of Pelota") shows how the game of pelota, which had formerly been reserved for the nobility, was popularised over the last quarter of the century and was played by other social classes, at the same time as it acquired other negative connotations associated with betting and public disorder.

2. Majismo

Amongst the "asumptos de cosas campestres y jocosas" or "countrified and light-hearted matters" that the tapestry cartoons were meant to depict, scenes featuring picnics, dances and processions to local shrines were a veritable must. In La merienda ("The Picnic"), Goya also illustrates the phenomenon of "majismo", which had emerged strongly within the society of the time. The orange-seller is shown as the prototype of sensuality and brazenness, qualities that characterised the local girls or "majas" who sold their wares on the streets. Their indecorous flirting is contrasted with the message that tobacco and drink contribute to the scene, both symbols of the ephemeral nature of worldly pleasures, as in the paintings of David Teniers. This warning can also be observed in the cartoon entitled El bebedor ("The Drinker").

3. The Bravura of the Majo

The term "majo" is defined as "the man who affects elegance and valour in his actions or words". The bravura of the characters portrayed in La novillada ("The Amateur Bullfight") could be interpreted, however, as imprudence, given that the young men depicted, ignoring the bullfighting prohibition of Charles III, take on a young fighting bull and run the unnecessary risk of losing their own lives. Similarly, the courage that characterises the guards who are combating illegal tobacco smuggling in another Goya cartoon could be viewed from another perspective, given that the sharp rise in tobacco prices in 1779 had led the employees of the Customs Office to be viewed as the real bandits.

4. Trickery

Trickery is something inherent in all games, either because it forms part of the game itself, as in the case of blind man's bluff, or because the rules of the game are perverted. Cards have traditionally been used as an allegory to make commentaries of a political, religious and moral nature, very often acquiring negative connotations associated with idleness and the fleeting nature of life itself. In the 18th century cards became extremely popular. In fact, they came to be seen as a grave threat to the "public good", as can be observed in the cartoon entitled Jugadores de naipes ("Card Players"), where a couple of cheats are making signs to a colleague in order to reveal his opponents' cards.

Games of any kind cease to be an amusement when they end in a brawl, which is the natural consequence when trickery and abuse of power are involved. This is precisely what has happened in La riña en la Venta Nueva ("The Brawl at the New Inn"), where a game of cards, which can be seen on the table and scattered on the floor, has led to a fight in which characters of all kinds have become involved. These characters also use all kinds of weapons to hurt one another, inferring that they are just like animals, not unlike the cats and dogs shown in this section, which entirely contradicts the idea of sociability advocated by the reformers of the Illustration.

Social Classes

Social Classes
The Wedding
Francisco de Goya
Oil on canvas, 269 x 396 cm, 1792
Museo Nacional del Prado

In Goya's cartoons exhibited in this section we can observe the varied nature of a society that was just beginning to become more mobile, undermining the rigid hierarchies of the previous century, whilst also highlighting the differences between one class and another. The rising population, the impetus given to royal manufactured goods, the new Bourbon Dynasty and progress regarding trade were the aspects that had the greatest impact on Spanish society.

1. The Harmony of the People

La pradera de San Isidro ("The Meadow of San Isidro"), a sketch created for a cartoon that was never painted due to the death of Charles III in 1788, reflects the harmony of the people as different social classes mix at the foot of the city and the Royal Palace, serving as an allegory for the kingdom and for prosperity and peace. Jan Brueghel the Elder in Flanders and Mazo in seventeenth century Spain focused on the well-defined strata of the societies of their age and the consolidated order that existed under the sovereign power. This theme was also interpreted by Luis Paret in his work, Parejas reales ("Royal Couples"). In these paintings, however, the disturbance caused by a group in the centre of the picture in the foreground is violently suppressed by the Royal Guard as the nobles look on with indifference and the king remains distant, isolated in his grandstand.

2. Hawkers

In art, depictions of peddlers date back to the sixteenth century, where they are associated with representations of regional attire and vocations. In the seventeenth century, these works attracted the social elite, who considered these popular figures to be a true expression of the national identity. Hawkers feature prominently in cartoons due to their typical character and local colour, and painters such as José del Castillo and Francisco Bayeu present faithful illustrations of these figures. Goya, however, who seeks inspiration in the Greek sculpture,The Dying Gaul, for his pottery vendor, and in the twisting figure of Callimachus' Maenads for the flower girl, reflects the desire that they arouse: the girl with her grace and showing off and the pottery vendor with his seductive merchandise.

3. Unequal Marriage

A beautiful young woman and a rich young man of different class walk confidently in front of the women's mocking friends and enraged suitors without paying any attention to the desolate father. In his work entitled La boda ("The Wedding") and in his series "Caprices", Goya portrays unequal marriages for money, as well as forced marriages and marriages undertaken to be free of parents. This was a burning issue in the 18th century, one that was critically depicted by enlightened thinkers and reflected in different ways by artists such as Maella (who portrays a fisherwoman handcuffed to a gentleman), Watteau and Colombo. Ideal marriage amongst the castes of the overseas kingdoms also became a topical theme. Charles III's Pragmatic Sanction of 1776 nevertheless required the father's permission to contract marriage, thus hindering the increasingly frequent marriages between persons of different social class.

Music and Dance

Music and Dance
Dance on the Banks of the Manzanares
Francisco de Goya
Oil on canvas, 272 x 295 cm, 1776 - 1777
Museo Nacional del Prado

Popular music and dance, as portrayed in street festivities and at fairs, make up the fourth section of the exhibition. In these works we can observe Goya's precise technique when portraying dance steps and musical instruments.

1. To the Sound of Castanets

Depictions of dancing, which was considered to stimulate amorous relations, served to warn of the vanity of sensual pleasures, as in the country dances portrayed by David Teniers the Younger, which also make reference to the decent and domestic life of women. In the eighteenth century, dancing also encouraged flirting between persons of unequal status, such as the couple consisting of a lady married to a "majo" in the Romería by Camarón Bonanat. In Goya's Baile a orillas del Manzanares ("Dance on the Banks of the Manzanares"), a "maja" flirts with a soldier, hoping to gain something more out of life. The hidden implications of this pictorial theme are bitingly summarised in Goya's Disparate alegre ("Merry Folly"), in which various beautiful women incite a number of old men at a grotesque dance.

2. The Ladle Game

Half game and half dance, La gallina ciega ("Blind Man's Bluff") presents a circle of players, "majos" and nobles who are swerving and spinning away to avoid the young man with the ladle whose eyes are covered like Cupid and who must identify the person who is touched. In this work, Goya highlights the themes of deception and seduction, as well as the mixing of the social classes, although the "majos" may well be nobles who have dressed up in popular costume. The girl whom the searcher loves, hidden behind the lady with the hat, was repainted later on and appears in the sketch that is exhibited in the second section. Rubens' work, which depicts a wild amorous dance involving coupled peasants and gods played out to the tune of the flute held by a shepherd in a tree, may have served as Goya's model, together with the flirtations revolving around the god, Pan, in Lucas Fayd'herbe's work.

3. "The Parnassus of the Passions"

The image of a musician with a string instrument, like Apollo on Mountain Parnassus inspiring the poets with his lyre, has symbolised the ideas of perfect harmony and beauty since Antiquity. Given that the string can be broken, this motif can also signify vanity, as in Niño tocando un laúd ("Boy Playing the Lyre") where the boy's eyes lifted to heaven, nevertheless, announce the divine harmony that exists in the beyond. The musician, who is also identified with a sanguine temperament, illustrates the two opposing faces of love. The musician depicted by Ramón Bayeu reflects the unhappy love of a lady in the background with all the languid sentimentality characteristic of the time. Goya's musician, however, sings with veritable ardour, as if bewildered by the love that he appears to experience in all its facets, searching in vain for help from above.

4. Blind Minstrels

The blind minstrel has a long tradition in the history of art, with one example being the painting by Georges de La Tour. His musician playing the hurdy-gurdy is far removed from the traditionally brutal beggar depicted in the style ofLazarillo de Tormes, acquiring the austere nobility of the ancient philosophers, a theme of seventeenth century painting. Goya leans towards a sombre figure, with his blind man's guide, a character who was ever present at popular and Court festivities. He attracts a varied crowd with his love ballads and ballads relating crimes that capture the morbid attention of a young lady. Ramón Bayeu leans towards a character of melancholy beauty, such as the companion, perhaps a soldier whose war wounds have caused his sad plight.

5. The Pipe and Drum

Goya resorts to music and the beat of the drum in various cartoons, such as Muchachos jugando a soldados ("Boys Playing at Soldiers"), in order to express feelings of public merriment. On the bill for the work entitled Ciego de la guitarra ("The Blind Guitarist"), the artist described his instrument as a "vihuela", a predecessor of the guitar typical of the sixteenth century. The instrument that appears in Baile a orillas del Manzanares ("Dance on the Banks of the Manzanares") is clearly a guitar, replete with its six strings. The "dulzainas" or clarinet-like flutes in La boda ("The Wedding") and Los zancos ("Stilts"), made of wood with metal reinforcements, had a sweet yet penetrating sound that could be heard above the hustle and bustle of the street, but in Pastor ("Shepherd Playing a Dulzaina"), the instrument is excessively long and could have been invented by Goya, being based on the tibia of the Classical Period in order to accentuate the bucolic ambience of The Seasons, the series to which this work belongs.


Boys with Mastiffs
Francisco de Goya
Oil on canvas, 112 x 145 cm, 1786
Museo Nacional del Prado

This section focuses on Goya's scenes featuring children, based on children's themes of previous centuries. It seeks to determine the enlightened view of children compared to traditional views, as well as establishing Goya's transparently progressive ideas regarding childhood.

1. Nature and Play

In the eighteenth century, nature and play formed a part of children's recreation, as well as their education. These recreational activities included climbing trees to collect fruit, which is why this motif has always been present in the plastic arts, ranging from Titian's light-hearted depictions to Goya's boys. Another amusement of this kind consisted of catching birds, with singing birds being the favourite toy of children. The reformers of the Enlightenment encouraged children's intuitive contact with nature, with plants and with animals, as an excellent means of acquiring knowledge, in addition to providing a form of entertainment.

2. Childhood in Its Ambience

In his cartoons, Goya depicts childhood in different ambiences, including the world of work and family. The children of less affluent families were required first to help with the household chores, before beginning work outside the home at the age of seven. One of the customary activities was to work as farm servants, as in Muchachos con perros de presa ("Boys with Blood Dogs"). Although Goya depicts children from poor families, as in Los pobres en la fuente ("Poor People at the Fountain"), his view is idealised, presenting family contentment as a reflection of the whole country itself. This is not surprising bearing in mind that the ultimate recipient of the work was the king. The drawings of Desastres de la Guerra ("The Disasters of War") nevertheless reveal the critical situation in which children were required to survive.


Hypnos, God of Sleep
Roman Workshop
Marble, 115 cm height
Made in the seventeenth century with elements of a Westmacott Ephebe of 50-75 AD
Museo Nacional del Prado

Dreams, both real and imaginary, make up one of the themes of greatest interest to the artist, a theme he tackled for the first time precisely in the tapestry cartoons exhibited in this section. Different attitudes and motifs contrast with paintings and sculptures that encompass everything ranging from universal melancholy to sadness and repentance to fantasy, before Goya was to begin the dreams depicted in the Caprichos ("Caprices").

1. Sleeping Eros

The link between love and dreams, a theme depicted by Goya in Las lavanderas ("Washerwomen"), dates back to Greek art and the figure of Sleeping Eros, a naked boy lying on his side, accompanied by opium seeds that associate the figure with the funerary cult. The sculpture of Hypnos shows the sensual side of sleep. It was created in the seventeenth century, possibly by a student of Bernini, based on the Roman torso of an Adonis from the Collection of Christina of Sweden in Rome. Goya situates this theme within an ambience of prostitution, a vocation associated with washerwomen: one of them is enjoying an erotic dream provoked by the caress of a ram, a symbol of lust and a reflection of the precursory medical view of the age, according to which these dreams were caused by external sensorial impressions.

2. Amorous Melancholy

In spite of its simple appearance, La cita ("The Rendezvous") by Goya is a scene of complex meaning. In the case of the young woman sitting on a rock resting her cheek on a crumpled handkerchief in her hand, the artist resorts to the traditional image of melancholy, which distances her from the traditional interpretation of the prostitute and her flirtatious encounters. Dressed with restraint and featuring a simple hairstyle, her expression of sadness and her reddened eyes suggest the idea of repentance, as in the contemporary work Magdalena penitente ("The Penitent Magdalena") by Felipe de Espinabete, in which Mary has retired to the desert in order to cry for her sins. The figure's desperation also recalls that of Cleopatra when Caesar abandoned her, illustrated here by a Classical marble statue now identified as Ariadna dormida ("Sleeping Ariadne").

The Four Seasons

The Four Seasons
The Snowstorm, o Winter
Francisco de Goya
Oil on canvas, 275 x 293 cm, 1786
Museo Nacional del Prado

This section presents the series known as Las Cuatro Estaciones or "The Four Seasons", based on the original order of the works. These paintings were destined for the Dining Hall of the Prince and Princess of Asturias at the Palace of El Pardo, having been commissioned in 1785. This is a key set of works when it comes to understanding why and how Goya turned the traditional iconography of Classical origin on its head when representing the seasons.

1. The Mythological Tradition

The mythological origin of "The Four Seasons" is rooted in the Rape of Proserpina, which is frequently depicted in the history of art. The daughter of Jupiter and Ceres, the goddess of agriculture, was kidnapped by Pluto, god of the underworld. After reaching an agreement with Pluto, Jupiter split the year into twelve months. Over the first six months, Proserpina would be able to live with her mother, Ceres, who would bear fruit as an expression of her joy, whilst the rest of the year the earth would become sterile as a result of her sadness. The Four Seasons had always conveyed a universal vision of time and nature, as part of the idea of divine eternity, depicted by means of allegorical, mythological and religious motifs. With the scientific advances of the eighteenth century, this vision became more secular and the traditional approach was qualified by contemporary contributions.

2. Spring

Although Goya's portrayal of Spring is situated in the 18th century, it includes various references to traditional motifs relating to this theme. Thus, the "maja" kneeling before the main figure makes reference to the offerings made to Flora, as the personification of the season, as can be seen in the works of Van der Hamen and Giordano. Furthermore, the girl holding her mother's or her wet-nurse's hand could be associated with the flirtation that tends to accompany Flora, as in the version by Maella. For his part, the peasant who seeks to startle Goya's "Flora" evokes the figure of Liber Pater, the old Roman god of fertility, who is also alluded to by the flowers, symbols of conjugal love that also appear on an eighteenth century stone plaque.

3. Summer and Autumn

La vendimia ("The Grape Harvest") goes beyond the traditional depiction of autumn, featuring Bacchus and his followers, as portrayed by Maella. Goya follows tradition in terms of the harvesting of the grapes and the young man, of Classical inspiration, replete with the basket full of grapes and Bacchus/the "majo" offering the lady a bunch. However the scene is set in the eighteenth century. Grape still-lifes, including that of Hiepes in the seventeenth century and those of Meléndez in the eighteenth century, not to mention Cerquozzi's children cutting bunches of grapes, all refer to the abundance of autumn, the season when the fruits of summer are picked. Maella presents this season in accordance with Ovid's description of "a young woman with a burning face crowned with ears of corn". He also depicts the arrival of a storm, which makes reference to Jupiter.

4. Winter

La nevada ("The Snowfall") by Goya stands out for its powerful composition and the spectacular challenge of the white shades. The artist enlivened the scene with the grey of the trees and the clothing of the two groups that meet on the track, the poor people with their starving dog and the other group, servants from a noble household, with the pig. Winter was depicted by means of snowy landscapes by Bassano, Brueghel, Momper and Collantes, but also through the figure of an old man sitting by the fire, given that this season corresponds to the dying throes of the year, as witnessed in the sixteenth century rock crystal glass attributed to the Sarachi workshop. Maella portrayed an old woman telling her husband that there were only a few logs left for the fire.

The Air

The Air
Ascent in a Montgolfier Balloon in Aranjuez
Antonio Carnicero
Oil canvas, 169 x 279,5 cm, h. 1784
Museo Nacional del Prado

This section revolves around La cometa ("The Kite"), a painting that is contrasted with works by other artists such as Claude-Joseph Vernet and Antonio Carnicero with his work Ascensión de un globo Montgolfier en Aranjuez ("The Ascent of the Montgolfier Balloon at Aranjuez"), which shows how the sky was conquered in the eighteenth century, constituting yet another example of the advances of the age.

The Conquest of the Sky

In the eighteenth century, with the first air-balloon flights in Paris and in Madrid in 1783, the world of science began to conquer the skies, which had been reserved for divine presences up until that time. Phenomena linked to the air, once explained scientifically, lost their fearful character, whilst in the realm of art they underwent a process of aesthetic sublimation, based on a "delightful horror" effect, as in The Kite by Vernet, over which a storm looms large. Goya, who was more realistic, described the efforts required to master the skies, which can sometimes be in vain, given that in his version of "The Kite", La cometa, the wind has dropped. In Niños inflando una vejiga ("Boys Blowing up a Bladder"), a boy points to his chest, as if indicating the strong breath that is required for the job.

Aspects relating to the air and flight effectively inspired the artists of the eighteenth century, who focused on their fleeting nature. In one of his "Italian Books" or Cuadernos italianos José del Castillo drew a number of birds in different momentary postures and even described the effects of the wind on their bodies in flight. Goya also focused on birds, as in La marica en un árbol ("Magpie in a Tree"), in which he recreates the air and its ethereal depth through a series of birds flying at different heights. However, he did not conceal the true character of Nature, depicted here in the form of a magpie, a bird that tends to pillage other birds' nests. In effect, Goya was always especially interested in depicting Nature and, above all, the true nature of Man.

Goya's Tapestry Cartoons

Goya's tapestry cartoons arrived as part of the Museum's founding collections in 1870, having come from the storerooms at the Royal Palace, where they had previously been moved from the Royal Tapestry Factory of Santa Bárbara in 1857. They were located in 1869 by Gregorio Cruzada Villamil, who also published them for the first time.

The Prado began the gradual process of restoring them, given that they had been stored in rolls for some decades. They were then exhibited in the Museum's halls. Their public exhibition culminated with a large selection of these works being chosen by the Head of the Museum, Aureliano de Beruete, for various rooms on the ground floor which were to be devoted to Goya and, where appropriate, decorated with golden stucco in eighteenth century style. These rooms were inaugurated in 1921. There they remained, with few changes being made, except for their disassembly during the Civil War. It was not until 1982 that these rooms were closed in order to undertake the second stage of the heating and air-conditioning works at the Museum.

As of 1983, they were exhibited in the East Gallery at the southern end of the main floor, where they could be organised chronologically for the first time and in accordance with the artist's successive series. The exhibition also included the sketches that the Museum had managed to acquire up until that time. As of 1998, the works were moved to the special rooms they occupy today on the second floor in the south wing of the Villanueva Building.

Cruzada Villamil's early bibliography was complemented by Valentín de Sambricio's publication in 1946, which included documentation regarding the cartoons from the Palace Archives and the Royal Tapestry Factory. In 1971 Jutta Held included Goya's cartoons as a key part of her study on tapestry manufacturing eighteen century Spain, to which we must add the decisive monograph produced by Janis Tomlinson in 1993, based on her doctoral thesis. This marked the beginning of our rigorous analysis of these works and their sources, both of which are fundamental when it comes to understanding Goya's work. Today, a medium-term programme has been set up to promote the research, technical study and restoration of all of these works. This exhibition merely constitutes a small preview of the work that has been carried out and remains to be done.



An Infante of Spain (The Cardinal Infante Don Ferdinand of Austria, in Hunting Dress)

Francisco de Goya (1746-1828) by Diego Velázquez (1599-1660)

Etching, roulette and aquatint on laid paper, 280 x 170 mm

c. 1779-85

Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional de España


Frontispiece with portrait of Baltasar Carlos

Corlenlis Galle I (1576 – 1650)

Etching and engraving in Serenissimi Hispaniarum principis Balthasaris Caroli venatio, 460 x 329 mm

Brussels, 1642

Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional de España


Restorer receipt for the relining of tapestry cartons destined to the Ministery of Public Instruction and Fine Arts

Jerónimo Seisdedos

February 13, 1933

Archivo del Museo Nacional del Prado


Deer Hunting with bow and fire arms

Pedro Perret (1555 –c. 1625) by Francisco Collantes

Etching and engraving in Juan Mateos, Origen y dignidad de la caza

Madrid, Francisco Martínez, 1634

Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional de España


How to beat the scrubland with dogs and people

Jan van Noort (c. 1620 – c. 1676)

Etching and engraving in Alonso Martínez de Espinar, Arte de ballestería y montería.

Madrid, Imprenta Real, 1644

Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional de España


Hunter and Hunter shooting (recto and verso)

Francisco de Goya (1746-1828)

Black chalk and white chalk, 323 x 206 mm


Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional de España


Still life with a Wild Boar, a Duck, an Eurasian Woodcock and a Rabbit

Ramón Bayeu (1744-1793)

Oil on canvas, 155 x 114 cm


Madrid, Colección Abelló


Dogs eating intestines


Woodcut in Alfonso XI, King of Castile and Gonzalo Argote de Molina, Libro de la montería

Seville, Andrea Pescioni


Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional de España


The Rules of the Game

Jean Renoir

Edited Extracts, 2014


Versus Entertainment


Manuel Nonilla Banderillero Team

Juan Cháez (c. 1750? – ?)

Polychrome wood and fabric, 62.7 x 29 x 25.5 cm, 45 x 36.8 x 80 cm and 63.3 x 35 x 21 cm

c. 1789

Valladolid, Museo Nacional de Escultura


A Game of Ombre with Spain as the Stake


Colonia, Pedro Vray (ed.)


Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional de España


From Mestizo and Spaniard, a Castizo

José de Ibarra (h. 1685 –1756)

Oil on canvas, 169 x 95 cm

c. 1750

Madrid, Museo de América


The Magdalene in the Desert

Felipe de Espinabete (1719 –1799)

Polychrome wood61.5 x 91.5 x 41.5 cm

c. 1770

Valladolid, Museo Nacional de Escultura


The Four Seasons

Mariano Salvador Maella (1739 –1819)

Oil on canvas, 52 x 98 cm (overall), 33 x 17 cm (each sketch)


Private Collection

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