El pelele

Goya painted this in 1791 not as a picture to hang but as a full-size pattern for weavers. It was one of his last designs for the royal tapestry works, meant to be copied in wool for the walls of Charles IV's rooms at the Escorial palace. The scene is a carnival game called el pelele. Four young women hold the corners of a blanket and toss a life-size straw man into the air, his arms and legs flopping helplessly. It was a familiar bit of holiday fun, and everyone reading it understood the joke about who really held the upper hand between the sexes. It was among the last designs he made for the looms; within a year or so an illness left him permanently deaf.