Disordered folly

The proteagonist of this scene is a monstrous androgynous being, half man and half woman. His female part is clear, as his naked chest revelas his breasts, while the other part has no clearly masculiine features except for his calves. His legs are bipedal. The female half has round eyes and an open mouth, while the male half has a deformed face and points with his hands to another figure at the left edge of the composition. He crosses his hands in adoration and his face has drooping features and an open mouth. Next to her is an aquiline-nosed old woman in a toquilla, who also appears to be praying, and another fat, flat woman. Behind these three figures is a large group of heads. One can be seen with a beard and turban, another with an open mouth, and many others are blurred. On the far right, the heads are in the shape of animals.

The meaning of this print is cryptic, very difficult to decipher. It has been likened to Caprice 75. No one can untie us, in which Goya satirizes the indissolubility of marriage. In fact, the figure on the left is identified with a clergyman, as he wears a kind of habit, so that the horrible Siamese character would point at him, accusing him of being guilty of their devastating union. However, this interpretation is not the most widely accepted. The most famous is the one that focuses on the deformity or animalisation of the characters. According to it, the print is a summary of all human aberrations, a sample of all the monsters that have tormented mankid. This is how Goya saw the world: disordered, confused and anarchic. With the print he sought to criticise those who were incapable of distinguishing between good and evil, contributing with their consent to the dominance of the latter.

The possible preparatory drawing for the present print, also titled Disordered folly has survived.