# Don Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zuñiga [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [GOYA Y LUCIENTES, Francisco de]() - Date: 1801-1850 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 127 x 101 cm ## Commentary Like Velázquez, Goya was also in demand as a painter of children. After he was appointed Painter to the King of Spain, Charles III, the conde de Altamira commissioned him to paint portraits of his family, including his youngest son, Don Manuel, born in 1784. The fashionably dressed child holds a pet magpie on a string. In the background three cats stare menacingly at the bird, traditionally a symbol of the soul, which gives the painting a sinister and unsettling character. Goya apparently intended this portrait as an illustration of the frail boundaries that separate a child's world from the ever-present forces of evil. ## Related artworks - [A Lunatic behind Bars]() - [A Pilgrimage to San Isidro \(detail\)]() - [A Pilgrimage to San Isidro \(detail\)]() - [A Pilgrimage to San Isidro]() - [A Prison Scene]() - [A Procession of Flagellants]() - [A Village Bullfight]() - [A Walk in Andalusia]() - [Allegory of the City of Madrid]() - [As far back as his grandfather]() - [Asmodea]() - [Atropos \(The Fates\)]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()