Madrid fair
Francisco Goya·1779
Historical Context
Madrid Fair (La feria de Madrid) is a tapestry cartoon from 1779, depicting the bustling annual market that was a highlight of Madrid's social calendar. Goya captures the lively commerce and social mixing that characterized Spanish fairs, where all classes mingled in an atmosphere of commercial and festive energy. The cartoon was designed for the Royal Tapestry Factory of Santa Bárbara as part of the decorative program for the Prince and Princess of Asturias' quarters at the Pardo palace. Goya's depiction of urban commercial life shows his range beyond the pastoral and recreational subjects that dominated most tapestry designs. Now in the Prado, it provides a vivid document of late eighteenth-century Madrid street culture.
Technical Analysis
Goya renders the busy fair scene with characteristic energy and bright color, using the variety of figures and activities to create a lively composition that captures the vitality of popular Madrid.
Look Closer
- ◆Notice the commercial energy of the market scene: Goya populates the fair with a variety of vendors, buyers, and spectators that creates a convincing microcosm of urban commercial life.
- ◆Look at the warm Spanish light: the fair takes place in the vivid Mediterranean daylight that Goya rendered with growing atmospheric sophistication in his later cartoons.
- ◆Observe the social mixing: all classes encountered at a Madrid fair, and Goya registers this democratic mingling through the variety of costume and social type in the crowd.
- ◆Find this as a document of Madrid's commercial culture: the annual fair was one of the great social events of the Madrid calendar, and Goya preserves its character with the specificity of direct observation.
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