On April 26, 1806, Pedro Pifiero, a notorious and much feared bandit, escaped over a 44-foot wall from the Spanish arsenal of Cartagena, where he had been held originally under sentence of death. Roaming the countryside and once again stealing from both the rich and the poor, this el Maragato, as he was called after his birthplace in the mountains of the Maragatexia, turned up on June 10 at the home of a forest worker in the Verdugal. Holding him, his wife and three children, and two other men at gunpoint, he calmly helped himself to the family's dinner. Having eaten "very slowly and with much coolness and serenity of mind," the bandit then ordered the worker to saddle a fresh horse, which he loaded with two guns he had acquired in previous robberies.

A third gun he kept trained on the worker to herd him back into the house where the others were cowering in fear. What the bandit's intentions were, however, remains unknown, for at that moment, Friar Pedro Zaldivia, a Franciscan lay brother of the Barefoot Order of San Pedro de Aleantara, came begging for his monastery, the Convento del Rosario in nearby Oropesa. Soon, however, he, too, was one of the captives. But for all his appearance of meekness and humility, the young monk had no intentions of remaining a victim. Instead, he became the hero of a morality play that soon would be celebrated all over Spain, from court to countryside.

Maragato, whose boots had become worn during his wanderings around the countryside, ordered one of the men in the room to give him his. Friar Pedro, however, told Maragato that he had a far better pair among the alms he had collected for the poor. With Maragato's gun trained on him, Friar Pedro rummaged in the saddlebags he carried on his shoulders and finally produced the boots. He did not give them to Maragato, however, but tricked him into reaching out his left hand to take them. When Maragato did so Pedro grabbed the barrel of the gun and, after a struggle, succeeded in wresting it from the bandit. Maragato dashed to his horse for his other two guns, but again Friar Pedro was too clever. "Accidentally" bumping the horse, he frightened it and it ran away. Maragato also ran, but Friar Pedro was determined that he should be brought to justice. Taking careful aim at his legs so as not to kill him, he fired a charge of a bullet, two lead pieces, and some birdshot. His aim was a little high, and the charge lodged in Maragato's right buttock.

Finding a cord that "Providence had supplied" (perhaps the cincture he wore around his waist with its three special knots to signify his vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience), Friar Pedro bound Maragato's hands and feet. Later, when he discovered how heavily his prisoner was bleeding, he loosed them. Dragging Maragato into the shade where he could escape the noonday heat, he protected him from the wrath of the others, who, having previously stood by and watched, now wished to beat up the bandit when he was safely tied and harmless. Meanwhile, word of the bandit's capture spread quickly and an angry crowd gathered. Maragato begged the friar to finish him off so that he would not have to return to jail and almost certainly the gallows but Friar Pedro refused. That was God's domain, he said. Finally, at 11 o'clock that night, the police arrived and the bandit and the friar returned to Oropesa, one to jail, the other to his monastery.

About the Artist

As painter to the king, at that time, Francisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes had painted numerous official portraits of Charles IV and members of his entourage. But Goya was also a man of the people, and he knew a good popular story when he saw one.

A bandit shooting a monk would hardly be news, but when a humble monk shoots a dangerous outlaw--when a man-of-peace becomes a man-of-war--that was the stuff of legends. Goya's result was the "Capture of the Bandit Maragato by Monk Pedro de Zaldivia." Each of the series of six oil panels depicted one of the incidents in the story, which by now had been recorded in great detail in the press, as well as in songs, etchings, and poems. Friar Pedro Shoots Maragato is the fifth in the series, the others showing Maragato taking Fray Pedro captive at gunpoint, Maragato reaching for the boots, Friar Pedro and Maragato fighting over the gun, Friar Pedro clubbing Maragato to the ground, and Friar Pedro untying Maragato's hands.

For the most part, Goya was careful to paint the story exactly as it had been told. In the panel shown above, for example, the horse, which Friar Pedro had accidentally bumped, is shown fleeing and the anatomic destination of the shot is clearly indicated. Goya also clearly contrasts the well-booted feet of the bandit with the bare feet of the monk, an irony when one considers that the bandit lost his freedom over the want of a pair of better boots than he already had. It is also interesting to realize a more personal irony in the painting. Whereas the scene is painted so powerfully that one can almost feel the kick of the gun against the shoulder and the muzzle blast in the ears, Goya by this time had been totally deaf for nearly 15 years. Again, typically for the Goya of this period, the color scheme is gray and green. Untypically, Goya departs from his usual satiric treatment of clergy. Even though he shows the monk engaged in the out-of-character act of shooting a gun, Goya nevertheless treats him sympathetically, later showing him loosing the bandit's hands.