How did Francisco Goya’s later tapestry cartoons differ from his earlier ones?

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Francisco Goya: Self-portrait — Francisco Goya Detail of *Self-portrait*, etching by Francisco Goya from the series *Los caprichos*, 1799.

Francisco Goya’s tapestry cartoons, created for the Royal Tapestry Factory of Santa Bárbara between 1775 and 1792, evolved significantly over his career.1

In his early cartoons, Goya’s work was heavily influenced by the decorative style of Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, which was tempered by the Neoclassical principles of simplicity championed by Anton Raphael Mengs.1

As Goya progressed, his later cartoons demonstrated a growing independence from these foreign traditions. This shift was driven by his intensive study of the 17th-century court painter Diego Velázquez, whose works Goya copied in etchings. Through this study, Goya developed a distinct individual style that moved away from rigid academic constraints toward a greater focus on nature and the language of realism.1