Dream. Of lies and inconstancy

A figure on the left-hand side of the engraving, with a mournful expression, clutches the arm of a woman standing next to him across his chest. The woman has a double face, on the one hand looking at the man holding her arm and on the other facing towards the background, with butterfly wings on her head. It extends its other arm, shaking hands with a figure reclining in the foreground with his back to the viewer. We cannot tell whether it is a man or a woman, as it is a rather ambiguous figure with a broad back and an undefined double face, although she wears a skirt and high heels. Next to it, Goya has made a grotesque, smiling mask resting on two saddlebags. Next to the mask, a snake is attacking a toad, while another batrachian bites the snake on the back. On the right-hand side of the engraving, we can see a crouching figure advancing and holding a finger to his mouth as a sign of silence. All this is taking place in a misty landscape in the centre of which stands a castle with turrets and battlements.

This engraving is extremely complex and various explanations have been offered for it, although most specialists believe that it could be a veiled allusion to the relationship the Aragonese painter had with the Duchess of Alba while he was in Sanlúcar. The aristocrat would therefore be the double-faced woman with a butterfly on her head who is being clutched in anguish by Goya. She had already been depicted with butterflies on her head in print no. 61 of the series entitled Volaverunt.

It is possible that the Aragonese painter had turned to the Iconology of Cesare Ripa (Perugia, 1555-Rome?, 1622) for a visual source to inspire the two double-faced figures. This detail would allude to the false nature of the figures, while the butterflies on the woman's head could be a reference to the evanescence of emotions, to the superficiality with which this figure confronts his own feelings. The snake and the toads are symbols of lowliness and the castle in the background an image of love illuminated by moonlight. The saddlebags on the mask are related to the expression, "to pass to the other saddlebag", which means to deceive. In addition, the figure making a gesture of silence on the right side of the print could be indicating the clandestinity that defines the situation that Goya has allegorically narrated in this engraving.

According to Nigel Glendinning, this print may refer to Manuel Godoy's love affairs with María Luisa of Parma and Pepita Tudó, who was his mistress from 1800 and whom he married after his wife's death in 1828.

Perhaps Goya decided not to publish this engraving because of the important critical content that could be unravelled and provoke some kind of reaction that would compromise him. It could also be thought that what he was narrating was too personal and perhaps too painful for him to expose publicly, so he decided to withdraw it.