Blind Man's Bluff (Goya)

Blind Man's Bluff

Artist	Francisco de Goya
Year	1789
Dimensions	269 cm × 350 cm (106 in × 140 in)
Location	Museo del Prado, Madrid

Blind man's bluff (Spanish: La gallina ciega) is one of the Rococo oil-on-linen cartoons produced by the Spanish artist Francisco de Goya for tapestries for the Royal Palace of El Pardo. The work shows boys and girls playing the popular pastime "blind man's buff" with one figure in the middle gagged and holding a large spoon while trying to entice others dancing around him in a circle.

The children are dressed in the attire of Spanish aristocrats. Some wear velvet jackets and feather headdresses.

The picture is an example of Goya's Rococo period, and is typically lively and with a soft color scheme of pink and yellow in the skirts of women, luminous background scenery. As with many of the his tapestry cartoons, it captures a charming moment of life.

Sources

Bozal, Valeriano. Francisco Goya, vida y obra., Madrid, Tf, 2005. 64. ISBN 978-84-96209-39-8.

Francisco Goya

List of works

Paintings

Blind Guitarist (1778) • Christ Crucified (1780) • Maria Teresa de Borbon y Vallabriga (1783) • Spring (or The Flower Girls) (1786–1787) • The Swing (1787) • St Francis Borja at the Deathbed of an Impenitent (1788) • Manuel Osorio de Zuniga (c. 1788) • Witches' Sabbath (1789) • Self-portrait (c. 1790–1795) • Little Giants (1791–1792) • Portrait of Mariana Waldstein (c. 1792) • Strolling Players (1793) • Yard with Lunatics (1793–1794) • Marquesa de la Solana (c. 1794–1795) • Duchess of Alba (1797) • Self-Portrait with Eyeglasses (1797) • The Bewitched Man (1797-1798) • The Devil's Lamp (1797-1798) • Witches' Flight (1797-98) • Charles IV in his Hunting Clothes (1799) • Countess of Chinchon (1800) • La maja desnuda • Charles IV of Spain and His Family (1800–1801) • La maja vestida • Bartolome Sureda y Miserol (c. 1803–1804) • Portrait of Doña Isabel de Porcel (1804–1805) • Portrait of Francisca Sabasa García (1804-1808) • Doña Teresa Sureda (c. 1805) • The Colossus (1808–1812; attribution debated) • Majas on a Balcony (c. 1808–1812) • Time (c. 1810–1812) • Prison Interior (c. 1810–1814) • The Second of May 1808 (1814) • The Third of May 1808 (1814) • The Junta of the Philippines (1815) • The Madhouse (1812-1819) • The Inquisition Tribunal (1812-1819) • The Burial of the Sardine (c. 1816) • A Procession of Flagellants (c. 1816) • The Forge (c. 1817) • The Giant (1818) • Self-portrait with Dr Arrieta (1820) • The Milkmaid of Bordeaux (1825–1827)

Tapestry cartoons	The Parasol (c. 1777) • Blind man's bluff (1789)

Black Paintings (Pinturas negras) (c. 1819-23)	Saturn Devouring His Son • Judith and Holofernes • Witches' Sabbath • A Pilgrimage to San Isidro • La Leocadia • Two Old Men • Men Reading • Man Mocked by Two Women • Fight with Cudgels • Procession of the Holy Office • Atropos • Asmodea • Two Old Men Eating Soup • The Dog

Etchings

Los Caprichos	The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters (1797–1798) • What a sacrifice! (1797–1798) • They say yes and give their hand to the first comer (1797–1798) • Que se la llevaron! (1797–1798) • You who cannot (1797–1798)

The Disasters of War (Los desastres de la guerra)	Contra el bien general (c. 1810) • This is worse (c. 1812–1813) • May the rope break! (c. 1815)

Tauromaquia	Unfortunate events in the front seats of the ring of Madrid, and the death of the Mayor of Torrejón (1815–1816)

Blind Man's Bluff (Goya)

See also

Sources