LABOR ART OF THE WEEK: The Injured Mason
Chris Garlock | Published on 11/2/2025
“Was surprised and impressed to see this Goya painting at the Prado,” former NYT labor report Steven Greenhouse posted on Facebook last week. “It's called The Injured Mason, and it shows that in the late 1700s, Francisco Goya was already mindful of job safety problems.
In this painting, two fellow workers carry an injured worker who has fallen from the scaffolding visible in the background. The Prado says, ‘The painting has thus been interpreted as an Enlightenment critique of the vulnerability of men at work.’”