A Stickball Game (El juego de la pelota a pala)

The composition of this cartoon is in many ways similar to that of Hunting Party, both featuring multiple figures distributed across different planes, from the foreground going back into the background. There is no doubt that Goya's skill in capturing a sense of depth and his use of chiaroscuros had increased by the time he made this painting. Here the composition is much more believable and the space much better defined.

Gudiol points out that there is a possible self-portrait among the depicted figures.

The subject matter of this work, the game, does not appear to be in keeping with the rest of the series for the royal bedroom, which was dedicated to the peoples of Spain and the landscape of Madrid, under the pretext of the city's annual fair. However, it does maintain the optimism of the rest of the cartoons, a faithful reflection of the mood of Goya, who was enjoying a highpoint in his professional life.

The American scholar Janis Tomlinson goes further and suggests that the ball game is a sexual metaphor, justifying this hypothesis by pointing out the double meaning that the word ball can have, the gesture of the central majo figure, who appears to be drawing the viewer's attention to his own "equipment" and the fact that, in the 16th and 17th centuries, this game was in effect regarded as a sexual metaphor.

Cruzada Villaamil has identified the site where the game is being played as the area surrounding the Alameda de Osuna neighbourhood of Madrid, although some authors believe it could be a conventional landscape invented by the artist.