The Pradera de San Isidro, Madrid
1785. Oil.On display elsewhere
Painted for a tapestry intended for the Infante’s bedroom at the El Pardo Palace, this cartoon by Castillo is exceptionally large. Based on a sketch at the Museo del Prado (P07723), it presents the same subject as a later work (P00750) by Goya (1788:) the area around the hermitage of Madrid’s patron saint near the banks of the Manzanares River on the feast day of May 15. Numerous groups of majos and majas celebrate by singing, eating and strolling by the riverside. The center of the composition is occupied by a figure dressed in blue who plays a typical 18th-century guitar, with an elongated body and a dark neck. The urban landscape is conceived differently here than in Goya’s work, as Goya wanted to offer an overall view of Madrid in the background, with the meadow in the foreground, occupied by the popular festivities. Castillo’s landscape is more generic, with orchard trees and only a few groups of figures, although the silhouette of Toledo Bridge is visible in the background.
