All will fall

An old woman whose head is covered with a cloak and who places her hands in front of her breast in a gesture of supplication, looks up at the height where several birds with human heads flutter about, some of which are leaning against the trunk of a dry tree. One of them has been specially illuminated by Goya; it is a woman with the body of a bird, with a generous bosom and adorned with ribbons that seem to serve as a lure. Alongside the old woman, the painter has depicted two other young women with plentiful cleavage, suggesting that they are prostitutes. The one on the right is impaling one of the birds with a human head that can be seen in the upper part of the print.

Goya made a reserve of varnish in the aquatint to create illuminated areas such as in the decoy, in the figures at the bottom and in the area above the backs of the two young girls. The aquatint was burnished on the figure of the officer in order to show different tonalities, although these are hardly visible today due to the degradation of the aquatint.

In Ayala's manuscript it is said of Capricho no. 19 that "all kinds of brutes, soldiers, peasants and friars flutter around a half-hen lady: they fall, the wenches hold them by the wings, make them vomit and pull out their guts. In the manuscript of the Prado National Museum, it is written about this picture: "Let not those who are going to fall learn from the example of those who have fallen! But there is no other choice, they will all fall". In the manuscript of the National Library, the explanation of this print is somewhat more specific, as it says: "A whore stands as a decoy at the window, and soldiers, peasants and even friars come and all sorts of little birds flutter around; the procuress prays to God that they fall, and the other whores pluck them, and make them vomit, and tear out their guts like hunters pluck out partridges".

This print is a clear allegory of prostitution in which the lure is the bird-woman with ribbons in her hair, a mole and a generous bust. Around her flutter multiple bird-men representing the various social classes. There is an officer with a pointed hat and a small sabre, as well as a monk in an attitude of reverence or prayer with his head hooded and his hands tucked into the sleeves of his habit. One of these bird-men approaches the decoy with a libidinous expression. The intention of the bird-woman is to seduce all those around her, all of whom will fall and all of whom will be plucked in the presence of the procuress.

Goya's visual sources for this engraving come from traditional emblematic art. It is thus possible to draw certain analogies with Insignia sacrae Caesareae majestatis and with Columbarium puellarum from the book by Johann Theodore de Bry (1528-1598). In Columbarium puellarum we can see two female figures around a columbarium around which fly various creatures that are the result of the fusion between a bird and a human being. It should also be borne in mind that the theme of bird-hunting is used with some frequency in emblem literature to illustrate a love satire.