La cucaña

1787 painting by Francisco Goya

The Greasy Pole
French: Le Mât de cocagne, Spanish: La cucaña

Artist	Francisco de Goya
Year	c. 1786–1787
Type	Oil on canvas
Dimensions	169 cm × 88 cm (67 in × 35 in)
Location	Private collection, Madrid

The Greasy Pole (in Spanish: La cucaña, French: Le Mât de cocagne) is an oil painting on canvas executed ca. 1786–87 by the Spanish artist Francisco de Goya.

Like the others in his tapestry cartoons series, it is based on a popular scene of a vertical greased Cockaigne pole. The greasy pole was a popular theme of the iconography of the eighteenth century that Goya had already used for his tapestry drawings. During Cockaigne, boys climb and fight to reach the top of the pole. The background landscape is blurred, but it is possible to distinguish farms and a crowd gathered at the foot of the pole.

External links

(in Spanish) Search from ArteHistoria.
(in Spanish) Search on fundaciongoyaenaragon.es.
Media related to The Greasy Pole (Goya) at Wikimedia Commons

Francisco Goya

List of works

Paintings

Paintings	Consecration of Aloysius Gonzaga (c. 1763) The Holy Family with Saints Joachim and Anne (c. 1769) The Rape of Europa (1772) Christ Crucified (1780) The Family of the Infante Don Luis (1783–84) The Greasy Pole (1786–87) The Drunk Mason (1786–87) Paintings for the alameda of the Dukes of Osuna (1786–87) Saint Bernard of Clairvaux curing a cripple (1787) Yard with Lunatics (1793–94) Prison Interior (1793–94) Assault of Thieves (1793–94) The Duchess of Alba and la Beata (1795) Witches' Flight (1797–98) The Bewitched Man (1797–98) Witches' Sabbath (1798) La maja desnuda (c. 1797–1800) La maja vestida (1800–1805) Allegory of Industry (c. 1805) Majas on a Balcony (c. 1808–1812) The Water Bearer (1808–1812) The Knifegrinder (1808–1812) Still Life of a Lamb's Head and Flanks (1808–1812) The Colossus (after 1808) Truth, Time and History (1812–1814) The Madhouse (1812–1819) The Inquisition Tribunal (1812–1819) The Second of May 1808 (1814) The Third of May 1808 (1814) The Junta of the Philippines (1815) A Village Bullfight (1815–1819) The Burial of the Sardine (c. 1816) A Procession of Flagellants (c. 1816) The Victorious Hannibal Seeing Italy from the Alps for the First Time (1770–71) The Forge (c. 1817) Bullfight (1824)
Portraits	Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zúñiga (or Red Boy) (c. 1788) La Tirana (1792) La Tirana (1794) Portrait of the Marquise de la Solana (1795) The White Duchess (1795) Portrait of Charles IV of Spain (c. 1795) The Black Duchess (1797) Bernardo de Iriarte (1797) Portrait of Ferdinand Guillemardet (1798–99) Charles IV in his Hunting Clothes (1799) Portrait of Maria Luisa of Parma The Countess of Chinchon (1800) Charles IV of Spain and His Family (1800–01) Portrait of Manuel Godoy (1801) Portrait of Doña Isabel de Porcel (1804–05) Portrait of the Marchioness of Santa Cruz (1805) Portrait of Doña Antonia Zárate (1805) Portrait of Doña Antonia Zárate (1810–11) Portrait of the Duke of Wellington (1812) Self-portrait at 69 years (1815) Self-portrait with Dr Arrieta (1820) Portrait of Don Ramón Satué (1823) The Milkmaid of Bordeaux (1825–1827)
Frescoes	Adoration of the Name of God (1772) Frescoes in the Cartuja de Aula Dei (1774)
Tapestry cartoons (list)	The Boar Hunt (1775) The Parasol (c. 1777) Boys playing soldiers (1778–79) Children in a Chariot (1779) The Swing (1779) La novillada (1780) The Grape Harvest (1786) Summer (1786–87) The Drunk Mason (1786–87) The Threshing Floor (1786–87) Blind Man's Bluff (1789) The Wedding (1791–92)
Black Paintings (c. 1819–1823)	Saturn Devouring His Son Judith and Holofernes Witches' Sabbath A Pilgrimage to San Isidro La Leocadia Two Old Men Men Reading Man Mocked by Two Women Fight with Cudgels Pilgrimage to the Fountain of San Isidro Atropos Asmodea Two Old Ones Eating Soup The Dog

Print series

Los Caprichos (1797–98)	And so was his grandfather The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters
The Prisoners (1810–1815)
The Disasters of War (1810–1820)	This is worse (c. 1812–13)
La Tauromaquia (1815–16)	Unfortunate events in the front seats of the ring of Madrid, and the death of the mayor of Torrejón
Los Disparates (1815–1823)	A way of flying (c. 1815–16)
The Bulls of Bordeaux (1824–25)