- Cronología
- 1777 - 1778
- Ubicación
- The Prado National Museum. Madrid, Madrid, Spain
- Dimensiones
- 270 x 167 cm
- Técnica y soporte
- Oil on canvas
- Reconocimiento de la autoría de Goya
- Documented work
- Titular
- El Prado National Museum
- Ficha: realización/revisión
- 18 Nov 2009 / 14 Jun 2023
- Inventario
- (P00775)
- Otros títulos:
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Playing Cards (Jugando a las cartas)
See The Kite.
A group of men are playing a game of cards in which one of the players has an unfair advantage. The representation of cheating gamblers was not new - it appears in Italian and Spanish baroque painting - but never before had it been depicted in the setting that Goya chooses here: out in the open in the middle of the countryside.
The gazes of the figures are focused on the character of the majo on the left. The striking gold and red of his attire are picked out by the sunlight as it falls on him outside the shadow cast by the cape slung over a tree branch as an improvised awning. His accomplices give him signals so they might win their opponents' money. It appears that none of the other players have noticed the luxurious attire of the cardsharp.
Colour, light and shadow play a central role in this scene. Using vibrant and bold colours, Goya seeks contrast with thicker brushstrokes, along with a heightened expressiveness in the characters, whose faces are authentic individual portraits, far removed from the simple types that we find represented in previous cartoons.
Tomlinson interprets the coins and the cards depicted in this work as a symbol of the passing of time, habitual in vanitas iconography, as in the companion cartoon, The Kite.
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Goya. 250 AniversarioMuseo Nacional del PradoMadrid1996consultant editor Juan J. Luna. From March 29th to June 2nd 1996cat. 14
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Goya en Madrid. Cartones para tapices 1775-1794Museo Nacional del PradoMadrid2014p. 119
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L'œuvre peint de Goya. 4 volsParís1928-1950vol. I, p. 67, cat. 8
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Tapices de GoyaMadridPatrimonio Nacional1946pp. 103, 213, cat. 17 y láms. 78-81
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Vie et ouvre de Francisco de GoyaParísOffice du livre1970pp. 75, 86, cat. 82
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BarcelonaPolígrafa1970vol. I, p. 246, cat. 70
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L’opera pittorica completa di GoyaMilanRizzoli1974pp. 94-95, cat. 77
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Francisco de Goya, 4 vols.ZaragozaCaja de Ahorros de Zaragoza, Aragón y Rioja1980-1982vol. I, p. 90 y p. 121 (il.)
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Imagen de GoyaMadridLumen1983pp. 66, 69-70
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Francisco de Goya, cartones y tapicescol. col. "Espasa Arte"Espasa Calpe1987pp. 83-84, 152, 190, 258, cat. 21C y p.
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Francisco de Goya. Los cartones para tapices y los comienzos de su carrera en la corte de Madridcol. col. "Ensayos de Arte Cátedra"MadridCátedra1987pp. 82, 84, 86 y p. 79 (il.)
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Goya. 250 AniversarioMadridMuseo del Prado1996pp. 294-295, cat. 14 y p. 85 (il.)
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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 paredesin 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, Lunwerg1996p. 166 (il.)
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Goya en Madrid. Cartones para tapices 1775-1794MadridMuseo Nacional del Prado2014p. 119