AMICO Sample Records
Catalog Record in Data Dictionary Format
AID MMA_.49.7.41 OTY Paintings OTG OTN Don Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zuñiga (1784-1792) MET 50 x 40 in. (127 x 101.6 cm) OMG OMD Oil on canvas CRG CRT Francisco de Goya y Lucientes CRN Goya y Lucientes, Francisco de CRC Spanish CDT Spanish, 1746-1828 CRR Artist OCG OCT possibly 1790s CXG CXD This portrait represents the son of the conde de Altamira. Outfitted in a splendid red costume, Don Manuel is shown playing with a pet magpie (which holds the painter's calling card in its beak), a cage full of finches, and three wide-eyed cats. In Christian art birds frequently symbolize the soul, and in Baroque art caged birds are symbolic of innocence. Goya may have intended this portrait as an illustration 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.
The picture is one of several portraits commissioned by the Altamiras after Goya was appointed painter to the king (1786). It may have been executed after the child's death in 1792, since the imagery and sinister undertone seem more characteristic of Goya's works of the 1790s.
OOG OON The Metropolitan Museum of Art OOP New York, New York, USA OOA 49.7.41 OOC The Jules Bache Collection, 1949 ORG ORL http://www.metmuseum.org/ RIG RIP Y RID Full view RIR HasFormat RIL MMA_.ep49.7.41.R.tif AVD 20000629 AVV 1.2 ALY 2000 ADP PARSE-ERROR: OCT: Can't parse string: 'possibly 1790s'!
Last modified on October 10, 2001
