The Injured Mason (El albañil herido)

The tapestry would have hung on the east side of the room, making a pair with that of Poor Children at the Well.

In this tapestry cartoon, we can appreciate a dramatic change in the subject matter that Goya had us accustomed to seeing in this type of work. Although the artist keeps the focus on the people, we move away from the jovial, happy scenes of fairs and amusement towards the representation of social themes, which make their appearance in this same batch of works with The Snowstorm, Poor Children at the Well and this work, collectively known as the winter trilogy.

Goya presented Charles III with the sketch for this work in which the composition is exactly the same but the expressions on the faces of the characters are dramatically different. In the sketch the figures appear happy; two workers cast each other sideways glances, amused at the inebriated state of their companion, who they have to carry along. The king must have found the subject amusing but would have been surprised to see the finished cartoon, in which the men have swapped their smiles for looks of deep concern for their injured workmate, who appears to have fallen from the scaffolding.

Some writers have drawn connections between this theme and a decree passed by Charles III in 1784 which demanded that works managers pay damages in the event of workers being injured in falls and established a system of aid for the injured and their families. Goya may have sought to score points in the eyes of the king and his ministers, interested in dignifying common trades, by representing precisely one of these work accidents.

Nordström has justified the place of The Injured Mason within the winter trilogy by pointing out that, according to the iconography of Ripa, in traditional calendars the work of the mason always illustrated the month of November.

No tapestry of this piece has survived; this is the only cartoon that no longer has its corresponding tapestry. Sambricio interpreted this as proof that the cartoon had displeased Charles III, but a copy later appeared in the dining room of the Infante Don Francisco de Paula Antonio, the whereabouts of which are today unknown.