La bella e gli uomini mascherati (La strada dell'Andalusia)

This is not a finished picture in the usual sense but a cartoon, a full-size painted model that weavers at the royal tapestry works copied thread by thread. Goya delivered it in August 1777 for a set meant to hang in the dining room of the Prince and Princess of Asturias at El Pardo, outside Madrid. He was in his early thirties, still building a court reputation. The scene is set on a road in Andalusia. A young woman in Spanish dress stands between men in cloaks, and the story is jealousy. One masked man squares up to a seated man who has flirted with her, while she urges the pair to move along. Goya listed the couple in his bill to the manufactory as gypsies.