#Don Sebastien Marie as Batman

The model in this portraiture is Don Sebastien Marie Gabriel (1811-1875), great-grandson of the Spanish King Carlos III (reigned 1759-1788). The boy’s father, Don Pedro, married the Infanta Maria Teresa of Portugal and got only son in 1811 who was the last child descended from both families of Spanish Bourbon and Portuguese Braganza.

The boy in the picture appears to be pointing his right hand to the scenery behind him, along the route from Castilla la Vieja (or Old Castile) to Aragon, the mountains in Tardienta and the theater of operations of the Spanish resistance under the occupation of Napoleon can be seen. If the painting depicted this region, the patriotic intention of the painter can be imagined from it. José Gudiol confirmed that this painting was made with the approach Goya always employed when he portrayed a child: That is, as opposed to the “powerfulness” displayed by the accouterments, he sought the “naiveness” to represent the model’s face and clothes. The accessories and tools are depicted vividly and minutely while the human body and clothes are treated with a simple technique. Such a contrasting method that he employed can also be seen in the depiction of the background. The solid naturalism of the foreground and the buoyant gracefulness of the background create a superb contrast. This work, painted with the distinctive painting method of Goya’s art, represents a typical example of the “portraits of an affable and noble child” created by the master of court portraits.

Don Sebastien Marie Gabriel, by donning the batman mask wants to be a superhero that wants to take on the armies of Napoleon.