Francisco de Goya

Datos Generales
Cronología
1815 - 1819
Dimensiones
244 x 356 mm
Técnica y soporte
Etching, burnished aquatint and drypoint
Reconocimiento de la autoría de Goya
Documented work
Ficha: realización/revisión
21 Aug 2021 / 05 Jun 2023
Inventario
-
Historia

See Femenine folly.

The state proof in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston has the handwritten number 19 in the upper right-hand corner and 8 in the left-hand corner, in addition to the title Merry folly.

Análisis artístico

Six characters, three men and three women, dance in a circle to the sound of castanets. They dress like majos, but do not possess their youthful grace. The male characters look like old men with heavy, slow movements. The one on the far left dances like a monkey, the one next to him is bald and the one in the middle seems to suffer from a kind of dwarfism. The women are dressed in rich costumes. One of them also wears a crown on her head like those worn by the dead. The two on the right are younger but expressionless, with mechanical movements like those of the other figures. They dance on a bare, desolate stage, with no spatial reference, only a kind of horizon line.

The print is related to The Dance on the Banks of the Manzanares (1777), but what was joy and joviality in the tapestry cartoon has become grotesque and bitter here, so that the title is loaded with irony. In this print, the characters dance in an artificial, catatonic manner, with clumsy, stiff movements. They seem unaware of each other, they dance together but each of them is immersed in his own world.

Some popular dances of the 18th century were charged with eroticism. This may be the reason why one of the men has a considerably swollen crotch and it would also explain the deformities of some of the characters, produced by lust, as well as the fact that the women dress like courtesans.

Medium-toned aquatint that darkens as it ascends towards the top of the sky, where the burnisher is applied. The drypoint is used on the head of the man in the foreground and on his jacket.

The preparatory drawing for the present print is preserved, also titled Merry folly.

Exposiciones
  • Goya
    Musée Jacquemart-André
    París
    1961
    consultant editor Jean-Gabriel Domergue. From December 1961 to February 1962
  • Etchings by Francosco Goya
    Johannesburgo
    Johannesburgo
    1974
  • Boston
    1974
  • 1976
  •  Grabados de Goya: colección propiedad de la Biblioteca Nacional, que se conserva en su Gabinete de
    Casa de la Amistad de Moscú
    Moscow
    1979
    exhibition displayed from January 18th to 31st 1979
  • Goya. Das Zeitalter der Revolucionen. Kunst um 1800 (1980 – 1981)
    Hamburger Kunsthalle
    Hamburg
    1980
  • Goya y el espíritu de la Ilustración
    Museo Nacional del Prado
    Madrid
    1988
    from October 6th to December 18th 1988. Exhibited also at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, January 18th to March 26th 1989; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Nueva York, May 9th to July 16th 1989, Madrid curator Manuela B. Mena Marqués, scientific directors Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez and Eleanor A. Sayre
  • Francisco Goya. Sein leben im spiegel der graphik. Fuendetodos 1746-1828 Bordeaux. 1746-1996
    Galerie Kornfeld
    Bern
    1996
    from November 21st 1996 to January 1997
  • Goya. 250 Aniversario
    Museo Nacional del Prado
    Madrid
    1996
    consultant editor Juan J. Luna. From March 29th to June 2nd 1996
  • Zaragoza
    1996
  • London
    1997
  • 1999
  • Madrid
    1999
  • Schlaf der Vernunft. Original radierungen von Francisco de Goya
    Munich
    2000
  • Bilbao
    2012
  • Goya luces y sombras
    CaixaForum
    Barcelona
    2012
    consultant editors José Manuel Matilla and Manuela B. Marqués. From March 16th to June 24th 2012
  • Goya et la modernité
    Pinacothèque de Paris
    París
    2013
    from October 11st 2013 to March 16th 2014
  • Goya: Order and disorder
    Museum of Fine Arts
    Boston
    2014
  • Madrid
    2017
  • 2022
Bibliografía
  • HARRIS, Tomás
    Bibliography']['number
    OxfordBruno Cassirer
    1964
    pp. 393-394, cat. 259
  • GASSIER, Pierre y WILSON, Juliet
    Vie et ouvre de Francisco de Goya
    Bibliography']['number
    ParísOffice du livre
    1970
    p. 326, cat. 1589
  • SANTIAGO, Elena M. (coordinadora)
    Catálogo de las estampas de Goya en la Biblioteca Nacional
    Bibliography']['number
    MadridMinisterio de Educación y Cultura, Biblioteca Nacional
    1996
    p. 240, cat. 386
  • CARRETE, Juan, MATILLA, José Manuel, AULLÓN DE HARO, Pedro, BOZAL, Valeriano, GLENDINNING, Nigel, VEGA, Jesusa y BLAS, Javier
    Bibliography']['number
    MadridReal Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando y Calcografía Nacional
    1996
    pp. 107 y 111, cat. 12 y 32
  • MATILLA, José Manuel
    Bibliography']['number
    Roma Edizioni de Luca
    2000
    pp. 134-135, cat. 44
  • MATILLA, José Manuel
    Bibliography']['number
    MadridMuseo Nacional y Ediciones El Viso
    2008
    pp. 482-483, cat. 179
  • OROPESA, Marisa and RINCÓN GARCÍA, Wilfredo
    Bibliography']['number
    ParísPinacoteca de París
    2013
    p. 273
  • ILCHMAN, Frederick y STEPANEK, Stephanie L. (comisarios)
    Goya: Order & Disorder
    Bibliography']['number
    BostonMuseum of Fine Arts Boston Publications
    2014
    pp. 145-147
  • WILSON BAREAU, Juliet
    Goya. In the Norton Simon Museum
    Bibliography']['number
    PasadenaNorton Simon Museum
    2016
    pp. 204-211
  • CALVO RUATA, José Ignacio, BORRÁS GUALIS, Gonzalo M. and MARTÍNEZ HERRANZ, Amparo
    Bibliography']['number
    ZaragozaGobierno de Aragón y Fundación Bancaria Ibercaja
    2017
    p. 263
  • TORAL OROPESA, María and MARTÍN MEDINA, Víctor
    Bibliography']['number
    Museo de Bellas Artes de Badajoz y Diputación de Badajoz
    2022
    p. 98
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