Detail of the Portrait of Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zuniga by Goya in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, February 2019

Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zuñiga (1784–1792),1787–88


Object Details

Artist: Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes) (Spanish, Fuendetodos 1746–1828 Bordeaux)

Date: 1787–88

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 50 x 40 in. (127 x 101.6 cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: The Jules Bache Collection, 1949

Accession Number: 49.7.41


Portraits of children accompanied by animals have a long tradition in Spanish painting. Outfitted in a splendid red costume, the young boy, the son of the Count and Countess of Altamira, is shown with a pet magpie (which holds the painter's calling card in its beak), a cage full of finches, and three wide-eyed cats. Although they add an engaging element for the viewer, Goya may have intended them as a reminder of the frail boundaries that separate the child's world from the forces of evil, or as a commentary on the fleeting nature of innocence and youth. Manuel died at the tender age of eight.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436545