Three hooded couples

See Five Figures of Men.

In this work Goya copied Flaxman´s engraved drawings entitled The Procession of the Hypocrites which illustrates canto XXIII of the Inferno in Dante´s Divine Comedy. The hypocrites are dressed in tunics down to their feet and their geads are covered with hoods, preventing their faces from being seen. In Flaxman´s drawing these digures pass two by two, trampling on Caiaphas, crucified on the ground. In the Aragonese frawing the monks also go in procession in pairs. However, the figure of Caiaphas is replaced by that of a monk crouching in shadow to fill the gap between the two pairs of hypocrites.

Goya's figures are distinguished by the generation of volume through the interplay of light and shadow, unlike Flaxman's drawings, which are characterised by their configuration based on hard, cold lines. According to Pierre Gassier, of all the drawings in the series, this is the most coherent.