Women carrying pitchers
Francisco Goya·1791
Historical Context
Women Carrying Pitchers (Las mozas del cántaro) is a tapestry cartoon from 1791, one of Goya's very last designs for the Royal Tapestry Factory of Santa Bárbara. Women carrying water jugs from a public fountain was a common sight in eighteenth-century Madrid, where domestic water supply depended on such labor. Goya depicts the scene with a naturalism and atmospheric sensitivity that marks a significant advance over his earlier, more artificial cartoon compositions. This late series, intended for the king's study at El Escorial, represents the culmination of Goya's decorative work before he abandoned the format entirely. The cartoon is in the Prado and demonstrates how Goya elevated mundane subjects into art of genuine pictorial distinction.
Technical Analysis
Goya renders the water-carrying women with graceful naturalism, using the rhythmic movement of the figures and the bright palette of tapestry design to create an elegant composition of working life.
Look Closer
- ◆Notice the rhythmic movement of the water-carrying women: their graceful, repeated gestures with the pitchers create a visual rhythm that approaches dance without becoming mannered.
- ◆Look at the atmospheric sky and background: these final cartoons give the greatest attention to atmosphere and light of any in the series.
- ◆Observe the dignified naturalism of the working women: Goya treats their labor as worthy of the same serious observation he brought to aristocratic subjects.
- ◆Find this as the culmination of the tapestry cartoon career: these 1791 designs represent Goya's most accomplished work in the format before his illness permanently altered the course of his art.
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