Blind Man's Buff
by GOYA Y LUCIENTES, Francisco de, Oil on canvas, 269 x 350 cm
In 1788 Goya was engaged on the sketches for cartoons for tapestries to decorate the bedroom of the Infantes in the Palace of El Pardo. Blind Man’s Buff is the only finished cartoon made from these sketches (the sketch for it is in the Prado), probably because of the death of Charles III and the subsequent withdrawal of tapestries from El Pardo.
Goya has reverted to a conventional composition with marionette-like figures for the representation of a society pastime. Gathered on the banks of the Manzanares river are a number of ladies and gentlemen, some dressed in the latest Parisian fashions, others in the flamboyant costumes worn by Spanish ‘majos’ and ‘majas’.