Blind man's buff

Blind Man's Buff
Artist: Goya
Cartoon; Size: 269x350cm; Prado, Madrid.

One of the themes of the tapestries commissioned from Goya and intended to embellish the Camera of the Princes in the royal palace of El Pardo was the game of Blind Man's Buff. The artist made the drawing for it in 1788 and the same year, or perhaps the following one, painted the cartoon that was to be used as a model for the weaving of the tapestry. The painting was part of a series of rustic scenes, including The Swing and The Greasy Pole , in which Goya was able to underline the light-hearted character of the subjects through a style of great fluency. This characteristic is evident in other cartoons for tapestries, such as the Flower Girls and Spring of 1886-87, which display the same freshness of color. According to some historians the joyful atmosphere of these works is a reflection of one of the most serene periods in the artist's life, which would be brought to an end in 1792 with the grave illness that left him deaf.