Text
caption from the "Prado"
etching version:
"Fantasy
abandoned by reason produces
impossible monsters: united
with her, she is the mother
of the arts and the origin of
their marvels."
"La
fantasia abandonada de la razon,
produce monstruos imposibles:
unida con ella, es madre de
las artes y origen de sus marabillas."
List of Plates:
Plate
43
The sleep of reason
Plate
2
They Say Yes
Plate 33
To the Count Palantine
Plate 55
Until Death
Plate
77
First One, Then
Another
THE
CAPRICHOS
There
are minor disagreements among
art historians about the Caprichos.
That Goya worked on the Caprichos sets for several years before
publishing them in 1799 is clear,
but the certain date of when
he began the series is not known.
Fred Licht's book Goya,
says Goya began laboring on
this set in 1797; Reva Wolf's
book Goya and the Satirical
Print says he was laboring
on it in 1796; Xavier de Salas' Goya quotes two sources
showing that Goya began preparing
the Caprichos in 1793.
Whatever the case, the Philip
Hofer introduction to the Dover
Books edition of Los Caprichos says that Goya sold 27 sets
(in two days) across the street
from his home at a shop for
perfume and liquors. Sarah Symmon's
book Goya says the prints
were sold in a liqueur &
scent shop which was downstairs
from Goya's Madrid apartment.
The
usual legend about the Caprichos is that after two days Goya
personally withdrew the remaining
unsold sets (approximately 270).
The public reaction was apparently
quite negative and was enough
for Goya to fear legal repercussions,
if not actually coming under
the power of the Inquisition
itself. Robert Hughes book, Goya, however, states
there is no evidence for this
turn of events, that instead
the Caprichos were simply
unpopular, that Goya could not
get them into even Madrid bookstores,
their proper outlet. Sarah Symmon's
says that in 1803 he donated
the unsold sets, along with
the copper plates, to the Royal
print works as part of a deal
to secure a pension for his
son Xavier. She also states
that Goya, later in life, said
that he withdrew the Caprichos out of fear of the Inquisition.
Frank Milner's book (also simply
titled Goya) carries
this same chronology of events,
but Milner simply says that
the etching sets were priced
too highly (320 Spanish reales,
roughly the equivalent to an
ounce of gold) and there was
not a very large audience for
the deeply thought-out allusions
that Goya imbued the Caprichos with.
The
entire set of some 80 prints
cover subjects of prostitution,
child sexual abuse, witchcraft,
numerous specific superstitions,
and satiric critiques of doctors,
politicians, and clergy, among
others. Nearly half of the imagery
concerns itself with witchcraft,
often in a mocking tone that
shows that Goya's use of this
particular subject was meant
to have more than just one single
understanding for the viewer.
Some writers on Goya have called
this symbolic multifaceted"visual
language" that Goya employs
as "code." Obviously,
viewing pictures about Spanish
culture in 1799 carries a number
of pitfalls for the modern 21st
century viewer - - hence the
industry of interpretation that
exists to explain the Caprichos,
much of it in frankly Freudian
terms, which may reflect more
heavily the 21st century western
culture trying to find meaning
in the pictures, versus the
actual meanings Goya figured
upon as part of his 18th century
world.
In
his old age, while in exile
in France, it was suggested
to Goya that he have the Caprichos reprinted again. He responded
that he no longer owned the
plates, and that besides, 'he
had better ideas now.'
For a relatively straight-forward explanation of the Caprichos and it's themes, be sure to read the brief paper that accompanied a Caprichos exhibit at Columbia University in 1993 (brief excerpt below):
The series known as "Los Caprichos," which, loosely translated, means "the caprices," shows Goya's rancor at the unpredictability of life, combining acerbic commentary on the Spanish aristocracy, the clergy and human nature itself with images of monsters, ghouls and other supernatural figures. 