Friar Pedro Shoots El Maragato as His Horse Runs Offc. 1806
Francisco de Goya explored satirical and popular aspects of Spanish life. This work, from a series about the notorious criminal El Maragato, features his capture. More about this work
About this work
Francisco de Goya explored satirical and popular aspects of Spanish life. This work, from a series about the notorious criminal El Maragato, features his capture. After escaping prison, El Maragato spent two months stealing food, guns, and money before trying to take Friar Pedro de Saldivia and other people hostage. The friar outsmarted the bandit, however, seizing his gun and shooting him in the thigh.
Text from the Art Institute of Chicago.
What you’re looking at
Small painting, friar shoots man with yellow pants as horse runs off.
Description from the Art Institute of Chicago.
How it was made
- Oil on panel
- Oil paint on prepared wooden boards, usually oak in the north and poplar in Italy. The rigid, smooth surface suits fine detail and thin, glowing glazes.
- Oil paint
- Pigment ground in a drying oil, usually linseed. It dries slowly, so painters could blend on the canvas, build up thin translucent glazes, and rework a picture over weeks. Canvas replaced wooden panels in the 1500s because it is lighter and can be rolled.
Francisco Goya
Spanish, 1746–1828 · Born in Fuendetodos; died in Bordeaux.
Goya began with tapestry designs for the royal factory in Madrid and rose to become first painter to the Spanish court under Charles IV. After a serious illness left him deaf in the 1790s, his work grew darker and more personal. His etched series, Los Caprichos and The Disasters of War, satirise folly and record the atrocities of the Peninsular War, and he painted the Black Paintings directly on the walls of his own house. He spent his last years in exile in Bordeaux.
Written by Ochre Editions.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The Art Institute of Chicago has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 1933.1075
- Credit
- Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
- Type
- Painting
- Department
- Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
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