Friar Pedro Binds El Maragato with a Rope
c. 1806
Oil on panel 
29.2 x 38.5 cm
Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection, 1933.1076

The capture of the fearsome bandit Maragato in 1806 by Pedro de Zaldivia, a Spanish monk (a member of a religious order), was celebrated in poems and prints. Like a modern-day comic strip, Goya tells the story in a series of six paintings. The desperate bandit locked people in an inn, and decided to steal a new pair of shoes from one of them. The monk handed over the shoes and at the same time wrestled  away the bandit’s rifle, threw him on the ground, and shot him in the leg when he tried to escape. As the villagers cheered, what did the monk do to the bandit?