The Greasy Pole (La cucaña)

This series of paintings recalls some of the similarly themed tapestry cartoons made by Goya, such as the series made to adorn the dining room of the Prince and Princess of Asturias in the palace of El Pardo. The scenes are, in the most part, pleasant and amusing; situations that the paintings' owners could themselves experience at their countryside retreat. However, two of the paintings, Stagecoach Hijacking and The Fall, although maintaining the rural setting of the rest of the series, depict much less pleasant, and even dramatic, scenes, in which Goya took the opportunity to speak of the problems of the period, as he would later do on so many other occasions.

The description of The Greasy Pole as it appeared on Goya's bill went as follow: "6. Another painting that represents a maypole, as in a village square, with some boys climbing up it to win a prize of chickens and roscas [ring-shaped cakes] that are hanging from the top, and several people watching, with its corresponding background". This is the painting with the narrowest format in the series, and its composition, dominated by the marked verticality of the maypole, fits perfectly. The pole starts in the lower left-hand corner of the painting and extends up and across to the upper right-hand corner, tapering and bending under the weight of the boys who are climbing up it to reach the prize, which is decorated with a red ribbon. Safe on solid ground at the bottom, a group of people are watching the proceedings. Some men are helping the brave participants to climb the pole whilst a woman, dressed as a peasant, shows her concern with a worried gesture. We can also make out an upper-class lady, dressed in blue bodice and golden skirt, half hidden behind the group of men. In the background of the scene we see a farmhouse on the right-hand side and, on the left-hand side, the Osuna's little neoclassical palace itself, set amidst a leafy copse of trees.

Goya has represented each figure with its own individual pose, contributing an air of naturalism to the scene. Despite the entertaining subject matter of this image, it has been suggested that Goya may have been alluding to the poverty and strife suffered by the peasants, as reflected in the hay wain that stands empty next to the farmhouse, and the fact that the peasants must run the risk of dangerous games such as this one just to get their hands on some bread and chickens.