A charlatan's charade

The centre of the print is occupied by a figure with the head of a bird of prey or parrot wearing a tunic and stretching out his arms. Behind him are many other figures with caricatured features that could be wearing a mask; in some cases they are animals such as an ass, a wild boar or a dog.

For Jesusa Vega, this work can be considered an eccentricity by Goya that could be related to the events that took place in Valencia in May 1814. It was then that the president of the regency of Cadiz, Cardinal Luis María de Borbón y Vallabriga (Cadalso de Vidrios, 1777-Madrid, 1823), who was a supporter of the liberals, went out to receive Ferdinand VII, whom he had orders not to recognise as king until he had sworn in the Constitution. However, when the king met the cardinal, he held out his hand and the latter kissed it in a clear gesture of submission. The historian believes that this print also contains the so-called Persians Manifesto, a document signed in Madrid on 12 April 1814 by 69 deputies, led by Bernardo Mozo de Rosales (Seville, 1762-Agen, 1832). Essentially it called for the return of Ferdinand VII to power, the return of the Ancien Régime and the abolition of the legislation of the Cadiz Cortes. Thus the central figure could be an allusion to the monarch while all the grotesque characters surrounding him would be those who form his court of sycophants, those who demand his return to power.

For Nigel Glendinning the source of inspiration is, as in many other engravings in the Emphatic Caprices, the work of Giambattista Casti (Viterbo or Acquapendente, 1724-Paris, 1803) Gli animali parlanti (1801). Thus the whole group of extravagant characters, sometimes hybrid beings, would be the clique that surrounded Ferdinand VII.