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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.