What a sacrifice!

A young woman with long hair has a look of disgust on her face. Next to her, a man gazes at her libidinously, a deformed being with bowed legs, extravagant clothes and a huge face with coarse features that make us understand the young woman's expression. Next to her, Goya has depicted an older woman, probably her mother, holding her hand to her head in mock emotion. Somewhat further back, he places two other men who could be the girl's father and the priest who is to celebrate the marriage between the girl and her future husband.

The manuscript in the Prado's National Museum notes: "As it must be! The bridegroom is not the most desirable, but he is rich and at the cost of an unhappy girl's freedom he buys the support of a starving family. Such is the way of the world". In the Ayala manuscript, this print is marked "Idem anterior". Finally, the manuscript in the National Library comments that "vile interest obliges parents to sacrifice a young and beautiful daughter by marrying her off to an old hunchback, and there is no lack of a priest to sponsor such marriages".

The theme of marriages for interest is addressed on several occasions in the series of Los Caprichos, in which Goya reflects on the marriages arranged by parents with wealthy husbands who, in the end, sacrificed their daughters' youth and beauty. The Caprice no. 14 should be related to the works of Leandro Fernández de Moratín (Madrid, 1760-Paris, 1828) The Old Man and the Girl and The Girl's Yes in which, in the same way as the Aragonese painter does, he questioned marriages of convenience.

Goya had already dealt with this question in one of his tapestry cartoons, The Wedding, in which the way he characterises the faces of the figures is very similar to what he does in some of the prints in The Caprices.