‘The Madhouse’ is a painting by Goya which he created between 1812 and 1819. An oil-on-panel painting, it depicts a mental asylum. The painting’s sole light source is a barred window located high up on the wall which is evidently intended to repress the figures held within the room. The figures in the room are all engaged in sickening and pitiable behaviour; one is fighting in a tricorne, another is wearing a wild-feathered headdress, many are naked, and one of them is making a gesture of blessing to the viewer. Not the type of room flower delivery Oxford would like to be in! The painting could be understood as a denunciation of the contemporary practice in psychiatric institutions, a topic that was being fiercely debated over during the Spanish Enlightenment. One can interpret a few of the figures allegorically as parodying powerful social figures such as the army, or the clergy. The figures in this painting are much more individualised, characterised, and shown to have more humanity that his 1793 painting ‘Corral de los locos’ which focussed on the same subject matter.