Caprichos

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No. 43, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters

Los Caprichos are a set of 80 aquatint prints created by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya in 1797 and 1798, and published as an album in 1799. The prints were an artistic experiment: a medium for Goya's condemnation of the universal follies and foolishness in the Spanish society in which he lived. The criticisms are far-ranging and acidic; he speaks against the predominance of superstition, the ignorance and inabilities of the various members of the ruling class, pedagogical short-comings, marital mistakes and the decline of rationality. Some of the prints have anticlerical themes. Goya described the series as depicting "the innumerable foibles and follies to be found in any civilized society, and from the common prejudices and deceitful practices which custom, ignorance or self-interest have made usual".[1]

The work was an enlightened, tour-de-force critique of 18th-century Spain, and humanity in general. The informal style, as well as the depiction of contemporary society found in Caprichos, makes them (and Goya himself) a precursor to the modernist movement almost a century later. The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters in particular has attained an iconic status.

Goya added brief explanations of each image to a manuscript, now in the Museo del Prado; these help greatly to explain his often cryptic intentions, as do the titles printed below each image.

Goya's series, and the last group of prints in his series The Disasters of War, which he called "caprichos enfáticos" ("emphatic caprices"), are far from the spirit of light-hearted fantasy the term "caprice" usually suggests in art.

History

Los Caprichos were withdrawn from public sale very shortly after their release in 1799, after only 27 copies of the set had been purchased.[2] In 1803, Goya offered the Caprichos' copper plates and the first edition's unsold sets to King Charles IV. Later in life, Goya wrote that he had felt it prudent to withdraw the prints from circulation due to the Inquisition.[3]

Gallery

  • Capricho № 1: Francisco Goya y Lucientes, pintor (Francisco Goya y Lucientes, painter)

  • Capricho № 2: El sí pronuncian y la mano alargan al primero que llega (They say yes and give their hand to the first comer)

  • Capricho № 3: Que viene el coco (Here comes the bogeyman)

  • Capricho № 4: El de la Rollona (Nanny's boy)

  • Capricho № 5: Tal para cual (Two of a kind)

  • Capricho № 6: Nadie se conoce (Nobody knows himself)

  • Capricho № 7: Ni así la distingue (Even thus he cannot make her out)

  • Capricho № 8: ¡Que se la llevaron! (So they carried her off!)

  • Capricho № 9: Tántalo (Tantalus)

  • Capricho № 10: El amor y la muerte (Love and death)

  • Capricho № 11: Muchachos al avío (Lads making ready)

  • Capricho № 12: A caza de dientes (Out hunting for teeth)

  • Capricho № 13: Están calientes (They are hot)

  • Capricho № 14: ¡Qué sacrificio! (What a sacrifice!)

  • Capricho № 15: Bellos consejos (Good advice)

  • Capricho № 16: Dios la perdone: y era su madre (For Heaven's sake: and it was her mother)

  • Capricho № 17: Bien tirada está (It is nicely stretched)

  • Capricho № 18: Y se le quema la casa (And the house is on fire)

  • Capricho № 19: Todos caerán (Everyone will fall)

  • Capricho № 20: Ya van desplumados (There they go plucked)

  • Capricho № 21: ¡Cual la descañonan! (How they pluck her!)

  • Capricho № 22: ¡Pobrecitas! (Poor little girls!)

  • Capricho № 23: Aquellos polvos (Those specks of dust)

  • Capricho № 24: No hubo remedio (There was no help)

  • Capricho № 25: Si quebró el cántaro (He broke the pitcher)

  • Capricho № 26: Ya tienen asiento (Now they are sitting well)

  • Capricho № 27: ¿Quién más rendido? (Who more is surrendered?)

  • Capricho № 28: Chitón (Hush)

  • Capricho № 29: Esto sí que es leer (Now that's reading)

  • Capricho № 30: ¿Por qué esconderlos? (Why hide them?)

  • Capricho № 31: Ruega por ella (She prays for her)

  • Capricho № 32: Porque fue sensible (Because she was susceptible)

  • Capricho № 33: Al conde palatino (To the count palatine)

  • Capricho № 34: Las rinde el sueño (Sleep overcomes them)

  • Capricho № 35: Le descañona (She fleeces him)

  • Capricho № 36: Mala noche (A bad night)

  • Capricho № 37: ¿Si sabra más el discípulo? (Might not the pupil know more?)

  • Capricho № 38: ¡Bravísimo! (Bravissimo!)

  • Capricho № 39: Hasta su abuelo (And so was his grandfather)

  • Capricho № 40: ¿De qué mal morirá? (Of what ill will he die?)

  • Capricho № 41: Ni más ni menos (Neither more nor less)

  • Capricho № 42: Tú que no puedes (Thou who cannot)

  • Capricho № 43: El sueño de la razón produce monstruos (The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters)

  • Capricho № 44: Hilan delgado (They spin finely)

  • Capricho № 45: Mucho hay que chupar (There is plenty to suck)

  • Capricho № 46: Corrección (Correction)

  • Capricho № 47: Obsequio al maestro (A gift for the master)

  • Capricho № 48: Soplones (Big gusts)

  • Capricho № 49: Duendecitos (Hobgoblins)

  • Capricho № 50: Los Chinchillas (The Chinchillas)

  • Capricho № 51: Se repulen (They spruce themselves up)

  • Capricho № 52: ¡Lo que puede un sastre! (What a tailor can do!)

  • Capricho № 53: ¡Que pico de oro! (What a golden beak!)

  • Capricho № 54: El vergonzoso (The shameful one)

  • Capricho № 55: Hasta la muerte (Until death)

  • Capricho № 56: Subir y bajar (To rise and to fall)

  • Capricho № 57: La filiación (The filiation)

  • Capricho № 58: Trágala, perro (Swallow it, dog)

  • Capricho № 59: ¡Y aún no se van! (And still they don't go!)

  • Capricho № 60: Ensayos (Trials)

  • Capricho № 61: Volavérunt (They have flown)

  • Capricho № 62: ¡Quién lo creyera! (Who would have thought it!)

  • Capricho № 63: ¡Miren que graves! (Look how solemn they are!)

  • Capricho № 64: Buen viaje (Bon voyage)

  • Capricho № 65: ¿Dónde va mamá? (Where is mommy going?)

  • Capricho № 66: Allá va eso (There it goes)

  • Capricho № 67: Aguarda que te unten (Wait till you've been anointed)

  • Capricho № 68: Linda maestra (Pretty teacher)

  • Capricho № 69: Sopla (Gust the wind)

  • Capricho № 70: Devota profesión (Devout profession)

  • Capricho № 71: Si amanece, nos vamos (When day breaks we will be off)

  • Capricho № 72: No te escaparás (You will not escape)

  • Capricho № 73: Mejor es holgar (It is better to be lazy)

  • Capricho № 74: No grites, tonta (Don't scream, stupid)

  • Capricho № 75: ¿No hay quién nos desate? (Can't anyone unleash us?)

  • Capricho № 76: Está vuestra merced... pues, como digo... ¡eh! ¡cuidado! si no... (You understand?... Well, as I say... eh! Look out! Otherwise...)

  • Capricho № 77: Unos a otros (What one does to the other)

  • Capricho № 78: Despacha, que despiertan (Be quick, they are waking up)

  • Capricho № 79: Nadie nos ha visto (No one has seen us)

  • Capricho № 80: Ya es hora (It is time)

Notes

  1. ↑ Simon, Linda, "The Sleep of Reason", The World and I
  2. ↑ Goya, 3
  3. ↑ Boime, 264

References

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Caprichos.
Paintings
Tapestry cartoons
Black Paintings
(Pinturas negras)
(c. 1819–23)
Etchings
Los Caprichos (1797–1798)
  • The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters (1797–1798)
  • What a sacrifice! (1797–1798)
  • They say yes and give their hand to the first comer (1797–1798)
  • Que se la llevaron! (1797–1798)
  • You who cannot (1797–1798)
The Disasters of War
(Los desastres de la guerra)
La Tauromaquia (1815–1816)
Los Disparates (1815–1823)
  • A way of flying
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