Le fioraie o La primavera

Before Goya was the dark, haunted painter of his later years, he spent a decade designing cheerful cartoons for the royal tapestry works. This is one of them, made in 1786 as an allegory of spring for the dining room of the Prince and Princess of Asturias at the El Pardo palace outside Madrid. It was meant to be woven in wool, so Goya kept the colours bright and the shapes simple. Instead of the usual goddess Flora, he fills spring with real people, young women gathering flowers on a bank. Watch the man creeping up behind them at the left, holding a live rabbit he is about to use to startle the woman with the child.