The Parable of the Guests at the Wedding (La parábola de los convidados a la boda)

The Oratory has an oval floor plan, and its interior is organized around seven adjoining arches on pilasters. Five of these are decorated with a series of canvases, three of which are the work of Goya. In these paintings colour is used to create contrasts and define the different groups of figures in the compositions. This technique serves as a unifying element which Goya employs to give his works a narrative thread, as if he had been an eye witness to the events depicted.

The brushstrokes are broken and fragmented, juxtaposed, creating patches of colour on the canvas. The colours give form to the figures and objects in the paintings. The artist worked quickly and without hesitation, making few corrections.

Before proceeding to paint the definitive works, he produced some sketches, two of which have survived: a sketch for Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes (La multiplicación de los panes y los peces) and one for The Last Supper (La Santa Cena).

Goya's canvas The Parable of the Guests at the Wedding is located on the Epistle side of the Oratory. It is based on events narrated in the Gospel of Saint Matthew (22:1-14), in which a guest is expelled from the wedding feast of a king's son for wearing the wrong clothing, an allegorical reference to the good character required in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

In the foreground is the king and next to him the guest, held up by two servants, while the banquet is relegated to the background.

The scene is grandiose and theatrical, the two groups confronting one another in an atmosphere of high drama. The events take place in a large hall with a raised floor; to its right are a step and a section of wall. In the background some vaulting is visible with two curves that branch off in opposite directions. There is a dividing line between the two groups which creates a space in the middle of the canvas, allowing us to view the whole of the room back as far as the banquet. Thus, on the left-hand side of this divide are the king and his companions, depicted with a rich colour palette, while the group containing the punished man is on the right-hand side, rendered in browns and greys.

The work is executed in a very spontaneous way, as can be seen from the sketchily drawn figures participating in the feast in the background, expressed in Goya's characteristic loose brushstrokes and markedly impressionist style.