You won't escape

A young woman in the foreground improvises a dance step; she stands on the tip of one foot while raising her other leg and raising her arms. The elegance of her movement is underlined by the lightness of her clothing. Behind her is a group of demonic beings with bat-like wings spread out, on top of which is perched another that appears to be a bird of prey.

The artist has applied aquatint over the entire surface of the print, achieving a rather dark result. The lightest areas are the dress of the dancing girl, the upper part of the monstrous being perched on top, and part of a wing seen on the figure in the background of the print.

The manuscript in the Prado Museum provides some guidelines for the interpretation of this engraving: "Never escapes what one wants to let be caught". The manuscript in the National Library is somewhat more explicit: "In vain does a beautiful dancer flee from the many birds that pursue her: the most daring, or the most foolish raised on the shoulders of others, will fall upon her sooner or later (Ore, Duro, Godoy and the Dutim)".

As in other engravings in this series, it is possible to consider a double reading for the print we are dealing with here. On the one hand, it could be a criticism of all those women who, in order to enjoy a comfortable economic position, were obliged to depend on men, which meant having to satisfy their primary needs and desires.

In some cases, scholars have followed the guidelines provided by the Ayala manuscript and the National Library manuscript in which the characters are identified with the French dancer Mademoiselle Duté and her lover Manuel Godoy. In the Goyaesque engraving, the latter could be the figure of the large bird-like being perched above his companions.