In 1788, as Madrid prepared for the annual feast of its patron saint, Francisco de Goya captured the city’s most beloved celebration in The Meadow of San Isidro. This painting is the earliest of several versions Goya would paint of this scene, and it marks a turning point: the artist had just been appointed court painter to Charles III, and the city’s springtime pilgrimage became both his subject and his stage. The festival, held each May 15th, drew thousands to the fields west of Madrid for music, picnics, and prayers at the shrine of San Isidro Labrador, the city’s miracle-working farmer saint. Goya chooses a panoramic sweep, placing the viewer high above the teeming crowd that carpets the green meadow.

Tiny figures in bright dresses and hats scatter across the field, while the city of Madrid glows on the horizon, crowned by the unmistakable dome of San Francisco el Grande. The river Manzanares winds through the middle distance, separating the revelers from the city’s silhouette. Unlike the more intimate, close-up scenes of popular life painted by Luis Paret y Alcázar, Goya’s version is a democratic spectacle: the focus is not on any single group but on the collective joy and chaos of the festival.

The light, clear and even, bathes the scene with a sense of anticipation, as if the day’s pleasures have only just begun. Commissioned as a tapestry cartoon for the Royal Tapestry Factory, The Meadow of San Isidro was intended to decorate the dining rooms of the royal palace at El Escorial, bringing scenes of popular festivity into the heart of royal life. Over time, the original cartoon passed into the Prado’s collection, where it remains today. The painting marks Goya’s last major tapestry design before his style grew darker and more personal, foreshadowing the psychological depth of his later works.

Though the exact medium is not specified, the tapestry cartoons were typically executed in oil on canvas, and this work stands as a lively record of both a vanished Madrid and a pivotal moment in Goya’s career.