- Cronología
- Ca. 1797 - 1798
- Ubicación
- The Prado National Museum. Madrid, Madrid, Spain
- Dimensiones
- 204 x 144 mm
- Técnica y soporte
- Reconocimiento de la autoría de Goya
- Documented work
- Titular
- El Prado National Museum
- Ficha: realización/revisión
- 13 Sep 2022 / 27 Jun 2023
- Inventario
- D4221
Watermark: [Shield with helmet, bird inside, and underneath "D.N J.PH GIS.T / ALCOY" (lower half)].
On the origin of this and other preparatory drawings for The Caprices, see the commentary on the first of them, corresponding to Caprice number 1 (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, painter), and on the one corresponding to Caprice 3 (The bogeyman is Coming).
Line of provenance of this drawing: Javier Goya; Mariano Goya, 1854; Valentín Carderera, ca. 1861; Mariano Carderera, 1880; Prado Museum, 1886.
Preparatory drawing for Caprice 56. Up and down
This is one of Goya's strangest compositions. A sort of Warlock, with the legs of a goat and a human face, holds in his hands a small figure whose hair and hands are on fire. Two other figures, on either side, fall into the void. The etching will make the surface on which this figure is seated more precise, as it is a globe.
The title already gives a clue as to what he wanted to represent in this scene: the fickleness of fortune, which can raise a man to the top and plunge him into the depths of the abyss. The period in which Goya painted this picture was politically convulsive, and it is thought that the figures depicted are Godoy and the ministers he removed from office, Jovellanos and Saavedra; or, as Edith Helman suggests, they could also be Floridablanca and Aranda.
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Goya. La década de Los CaprichosMadrid1992organized by Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando sponsored by Fundación Central Hispano, Madrid, consultant editor Nigel Glendinnig. From October 26th 1992 to January 10th 1993cat. 170
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Francisco de Goya: Maleri, Tegning, GrafikkNasjonalgallerietOslo1996from 10th to April 14th 1996cat. 39
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Bibliography']['number
Roma D.Anderson: Editeur1908p. 29, n. 56
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Los Caprichos de Goya y sus dibujos preparatoriosBibliography']['numberBarcelonaInstituto Amatller de Arte Hispánico1949pp. 93
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Goya’s Caprichos. Beauty, Reason and CaricatureBibliography']['numberNueva JerseyPrinceton University Press1953p. 204, fig. 200
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Bibliography']['number
MadridMuseo del Prado1954n.55
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Vie et ouvre de Francisco de GoyaBibliography']['numberParísOffice du livre1970p. 182, nº 564
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Dibujos de Goya, 2 volsBibliography']['numberBarcelonaNoguer1975p. 150
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Los Caprichos de Goyacol. Serie punto y líneaBibliography']['numberBarcelonaGustavo Gili1977p. 46
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Bibliography']['number
MadridReal Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando1992pp. 279-280
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Bibliography']['number
MadridMuseo Nacional del Prado1999p. 295
- Bibliography']['number
