The Threshing Floor (La era)

The tapestry of The Threshing Floor would have hung on the west wall of the room.

It was the largest painting that Goya was to paint in his lifetime, a scene composed of numerous figures each featuring an individual portrait, with its own expression. Goya painted the moment when the harvesters were resting, once again employing the pyramid composition learnt so well from Mengs. In this case his success in utilizing this shape is particularly worthy of note given the dimensions of the cartoon, which is long and narrow. In the background, the castle on the left serves as counterweight to the pile of wheat sheaves on the right hand-side, giving the scene a sense of stability and delimiting its space.

In this representation of summer, Goya distanced himself from the traditional iconography of the woman wearing a crown of wheat, and made the very original decision to instead depict country life and the moment of the harvest.