Francisco de Goya

Dream. Of lies and inconstancy

Clasificación
Dream. Of lies and inconstancy
Datos Generales
Cronología
Ca. 1797 - 1798
Ubicación
Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid, España, Madrid, Spain
Dimensiones
200 x 132 mm
Técnica y soporte
Aguafuerte y aguatinta bruñida sobre papel verjurado
Reconocimiento de la autoría de Goya
Documented work
Titular
© Biblioteca Nacional de España
Ficha: realización/revisión
20 Jan 2011 / 21 Jun 2023
Inventario
INVENT/45637
Historia

See Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, Painter.

This is a unique unpublished proof that belonged to the former Carderera collection in 1867 and later passed to the National Library in Madrid.

The title of this engraving is taken from the preparatory drawing in the Prado Museum.

Análisis artístico

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.

Conservación

The sheet is trimmed, creased and dirty. Stamper's fingerprints appear on the lower edge of the sheet.

Exposiciones
  • Grabados y dibujos de Goya en la Biblioteca Nacional
    Biblioteca Nacional
    Madrid
    1946
    catalogue Elena Páez Ríos
  • Goya: zeichnungen, radierungen, lithographien
    International Tage
    Ingelheim
    1966
    exhibition displayed from May 7th to June 5 th 1966
  • The changing image: prints by Francisco de Goya
    Museum of Fine Arts
    1974
    From October to December 1974. Exhibited also at The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, January to March 1975
  • Goya en la Biblioteca Nacional. Exposición de grabados y dibujos en el sesquicentenario de su muerte
    Biblioteca Nacional
    Madrid
    1978
    May - June 1978
  • Goya (1746-1828). Peintures-Dessins-Gravures
    Centre Cultural du Marais
    París
    1979
    consultant editors Jacqueline et Maurice Guillard
  • Goya: Zeichnungen und Druckgraphik
    Städtische Galerie im Städelschen Kunstintitut
    Frankfurt
    1981
    from February 13th to April 5th 1981
  • Goya. La década de Los Caprichos
    Madrid
    1992
    organized 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 1993
  • Goya grabador
    Fundación Juan March
    Madrid
    1994
    consultant editors Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez and Julián Gállego, from January 14th to March 20th 1994
  • Ydioma universal: Goya en la Biblioteca Nacional
    Biblioteca Nacional
    Madrid
    1996
    from September 19th to December 15th 1996
  • Goya: Order and disorder
    Museum of Fine Arts
    Boston
    2014
Bibliografía
  • ADHÉMAR, Jean
    Les Caprices de Goya
    Bibliography']['number
    ParísF. Hazan
    1948
    s/p
  • SÁNCHEZ CANTÓN, Francisco Javier
    Los Caprichos de Goya y sus dibujos preparatorios
    Bibliography']['number
    BarcelonaInstituto Amatller de Arte Hispánico
    1949
    s/p
  • NORDSTRÖM, Folke
    El sueño de la mentira y la inconstancia
    Goya, Saturn and Melancholy. Studies in the Art of Goya
    Bibliography']['number
    StockholmActa Universitatis
    1962
    pp.171-183
  • HARRIS, Tomás
    Goya engravings and lithographs, vol. I y II.
    Bibliography']['number
    OxfordBruno Cassirer
    1964
    p.162, cat. 119
  • GASSIER, Pierre y WILSON, Juliet
    Vie et ouvre de Francisco de Goya
    Bibliography']['number
    ParísOffice du livre
    1970
    cat. 619
  • BUENDÍA, José Rogelio
    El sueño de la mentira y de la inconstancia’ y sus raíces wattonianas
    Goya
    Bibliography']['number
    MadridFundación Lázaro Galdiano
    1971
    pp.240-245
  • GLENDINNING, Nigel
    Imaginación de Goya: nuevas fuentes para algunos de sus dibujos y pinturas
    Bibliography']['number
    MadridCSIC
    1976
    pp.284-286
  • GLENDINNING, Nigel
    Goya and his Critics
    Bibliography']['number
    New Heaven-Londres: Yale University Press
    1977
    pp.167-168
  • LAFUENTE FERRARI, Enrique
    Los Caprichos de Goya
    col. Serie punto y línea
    Bibliography']['number
    BarcelonaGustavo Gili
    1977
    p.198-199
  • WILSON BAREAU, Juliet
    Goya, la década de los caprichos: dibujos y aguafuertes
    Bibliography']['number
    MadridReal Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando
    1992
    pp.63-65, cat. 38-39
  • SANTIAGO, Elena M. (coordinadora)
    Catálogo de las estampas de Goya en la Biblioteca Nacional
    Bibliography']['number
    MadridMinisterio de Educación y Cultura, Biblioteca Nacional
    1996
    p.118, cat. 174
  • BLAS BENITO, Javier, MATILLA RODRÍGUEZ, José Manuel y MEDRANO, José Miguel
    El libro de los caprichos: dos siglos de interpretaciones (1799-1999). Catálogo de los dibujos, pruebas de estado, láminas de cobre y estampas de la primera edición
    Bibliography']['number
    MadridMuseo Nacional del Prado
    1999
    pp.398-401
  • ILCHMAN, Frederick y STEPANEK, Stephanie L. (comisarios)
    Goya: Order & Disorder
    Bibliography']['number
    BostonMuseum of Fine Arts Boston Publications
    2014
    p. 102
  • WILSON BAREAU, Juliet
    Goya. In the Norton Simon Museum
    Bibliography']['number
    PasadenaNorton Simon Museum
    2016
    pp. 42-75
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