Francisco de Goya

Datos Generales
Cronología
1786 - 1787
Ubicación
The Prado National Museum. Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Dimensiones
268 x 110 cm
Técnica y soporte
Oil on canvas
Reconocimiento de la autoría de Goya
Documented work
Titular
El Prado National Museum
Ficha: realización/revisión
13 Dec 2009 / 13 Jun 2023
Inventario
(P00796)
Otros títulos:

Historia

See The Flower Girls.

Análisis artístico

The tapestry would have hung on the east side of the room, making a pair with that of Poor Children at the Well.

In this tapestry cartoon, we can appreciate a dramatic change in the subject matter that Goya had us accustomed to seeing in this type of work. Although the artist keeps the focus on the people, we move away from the jovial, happy scenes of fairs and amusement towards the representation of social themes, which make their appearance in this same batch of works with The Snowstorm, Poor Children at the Well and this work, collectively known as the winter trilogy.

Goya presented Charles III with the sketch for this work in which the composition is exactly the same but the expressions on the faces of the characters are dramatically different. In the sketch the figures appear happy; two workers cast each other sideways glances, amused at the inebriated state of their companion, who they have to carry along. The king must have found the subject amusing but would have been surprised to see the finished cartoon, in which the men have swapped their smiles for looks of deep concern for their injured workmate, who appears to have fallen from the scaffolding.

Some writers have drawn connections between this theme and a decree passed by Charles III in 1784 which demanded that works managers pay damages in the event of workers being injured in falls and established a system of aid for the injured and their families. Goya may have sought to score points in the eyes of the king and his ministers, interested in dignifying common trades, by representing precisely one of these work accidents.

Nordström has justified the place of The Injured Mason within the winter trilogy by pointing out that, according to the iconography of Ripa, in traditional calendars the work of the mason always illustrated the month of November.

No tapestry of this piece has survived; this is the only cartoon that no longer has its corresponding tapestry. Sambricio interpreted this as proof that the cartoon had displeased Charles III, but a copy later appeared in the dining room of the Infante Don Francisco de Paula Antonio, the whereabouts of which are today unknown.

Exposiciones
  • Goya in the Prado
    The National Gallery of Art
    Washington
    1976
    from May 6th to 31st 1976
  • Les chefs-d’œuvre du Musée du Prado
    Musée d’Art et d’Histoire
    Geneva
    1939
    consultant editors Fernando Álvarez de Sotomayor y Pedro Muguruza Otaño. From June to September 1939
  • Goya
    Palacio de Pedralbes
    Barcelona
    1977
    from April 12th to June 30th 1977
  • Goya y el espíritu de la Ilustración
    Museo Nacional del Prado
    Madrid
    1988
    from October 6th to December 18th 1988. Exhibited also at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, January 18th to March 26th 1989; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Nueva York, May 9th to July 16th 1989, Madrid curator Manuela B. Mena Marqués, scientific directors Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez and Eleanor A. Sayre
  • Goya. 250 Aniversario
    Museo Nacional del Prado
    Madrid
    1996
    consultant editor Juan J. Luna. From March 29th to June 2nd 1996
  • Goya luces y sombras
    CaixaForum
    Barcelona
    2012
    consultant editors José Manuel Matilla and Manuela B. Marqués. From March 16th to June 24th 2012
  • Madrid
    2017
Bibliografía
  • DESPARMET FITZ - GERALD, Xavier
    L'œuvre peint de Goya. 4 vols
    París
    1928-1950
    vol. I, p. 93, cat. 34
  • SAMBRICIO, Valentín de
    Tapices de Goya
    MadridPatrimonio Nacional
    1946
    pp. 141, 147-148, 254, cat. 44 y lám. 15
  • GASSIER, Pierre y WILSON, Juliet
    Vie et ouvre de Francisco de Goya
    ParísOffice du livre
    1970
    pp. 79, 97, cat. 266 y p. 70 (il.)
  • GUDIOL RICART, José
    BarcelonaPolígrafa
    1970
    vol. I, p. 225, cat. 225
  • ANGELIS, Rita de
    L’opera pittorica completa di Goya
    MilanRizzoli
    1974
    p. 102, cat. 203
  • CAMÓN AZNAR, José
    Francisco de Goya, 4 vols.
    ZaragozaCaja de Ahorros de Zaragoza, Aragón y Rioja
    1980-1982
    vol. II, p. 43 y p. 21 (il.)
  • ARNAIZ, José Manuel
    Francisco de Goya, cartones y tapices
    col. col. "Espasa Arte"
    Espasa Calpe
    1987
    pp. 140, 142, 143, 147, 157, cat. 48C y
  • NORDSTRÖM, Folke
    Goya, Saturno y melancolía. Consideraciones sobre el arte de Goya
    StockholmAlquimis & Wiksell
    1962
    pp. 70-73 y p. 69 (il.)
  • TOMLINSON, Janis A.
    Francisco de Goya. Los cartones para tapices y los comienzos de su carrera en la corte de Madrid
    col. col. "Ensayos de Arte Cátedra"
    MadridCátedra
    1987
    p. 228 y p. 227 (il.)
  • LUNA, Juan J. (Comisario)
    Goya. 250 Aniversario
    MadridMuseo del Prado
    1996
    p. 230, cat. 40 y p. 121 (il.)
  • SANCHO, José Luis
    Salas del Palacio Real de El Pardo para las que se tejieron tapices sobre cartones de Francisco de Goya: identificación de las habitaciones y ajuste de las obras de Goya en los alzados de las paredes
    in HERRERO CARRETERO, Concha (curator, Tapices y cartones de Goya (catalogue of the exhibition organizated at the Palacio Real de Madrid, from may to june 1996)
    MadridPatrimonio Nacional, Goya 96, Lunwerg
    1996
    p. 165 (il.)
  • MENA MARQUÉS, Manuela B. y MAURER, Gudrun (comisarias)
    Goya en Madrid. Cartones para tapices 1775-1794
    MadridMuseo Nacional del Prado
    2014
    p. 258
  • CALVO RUATA, José Ignacio, BORRÁS GUALIS, Gonzalo M. and MARTÍNEZ HERRANZ, Amparo
    ZaragozaGobierno de Aragón y Fundación Bancaria Ibercaja
    2017
    p. 187
Enlaces externos
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