La Chasse à l'appelant

This is early Goya, and humble work by the standards of his later fame. In 1775, newly arrived in Madrid and not yet 30, he was set to painting full-size designs for the royal tapestry workshop of Santa Barbara. Weavers would copy this one thread by thread into a hanging for the dining room of the prince who would become King Charles the Fourth, in the palace at El Escorial. The subject is a country hunting trick: a net stretched across the scene, caged decoy birds, a crouching dog, and a small owl used as a lure to draw other birds toward the trap. Goya keeps the outlines crisp and the colours strong, exactly as the weavers needed, so the picture reads clearly as a pattern to be rebuilt in wool.