They repulse

A winged monster, standing frontally in the centre of the composition and slightly shifted towards the background, seems to shelter two other figures in its wings. They are two deformed beings, one of whom uses a pair of large scissors to cut the toenails of the other.

In this print Goya used two tones of aquatint and left a few reserves of varnish. He used the burnisher to capture the clouds in the sky, as well as to create the mid-tones of the figures.

The manuscript in the National Library provides a fairly clear explanation for this print: "The employees who rob the state help and support each other. The Chief of them often raises his neck and shadows them with his monstrous wings".

The use of the term "polish" has a double meaning here: on the one hand it alludes to the grooming of the monstrous beings in the print, but on the other it refers to theft. In this way the artist makes a veiled criticism of the authorities, especially the ministers, who cover up the theft of public money. They would be, in this case, the winged figure that covers the other two figures with its wings and looks up at the sky, as if it were not seeing what is happening.