This strange picture depicts Mardi Gras Tuesday, when, in the center of Madrid, carnival processions began. This annual holiday ended with the funeral of sardines, on which, in fact, Maslenitsa ended. Next followed the Great Lent. Religious holidays were the canvas of the whole life of Spain of that time.
On this plot, Goya wrote several canvases, and “The Funeral of Sardines” is the most disturbing of them. Through the Christian ritual, he clearly shows the signs of ancient pagan cults. We know nothing about the circumstances under which this picture was written, nor about the exact time of its creation.
The faces of almost all carnival members are hidden under the characteristic masks anticipating those nightmarish images that will later appear on Goya’s famous “Black Paintings”.
Funeral De Sardina – Francisco De Goya 
Funérailles Sardink – Francisco de Goya 
Mach naked by Francisco de Goya 
The Third of May by Francisco de Goya 
Feast of Saint Isidro (Romería) by Francisco de Goya 
Family of the Dukes of Osuna by José Francisco de Goya 
The Harlequin Carnival by Juan Miro 
The game of blind man’s buffets by Francisco de Goya