Francisco de Goya

Datos Generales
Cronología
Ca. 1797 - 1798
Dimensiones
218 x 152 mm
Técnica y soporte
Aguafuerte, aguatinta bruñida, punta seca y buril
Reconocimiento de la autoría de Goya
Undisputed work
Ficha: realización/revisión
13 Jan 2011 / 21 Jun 2023
Inventario
225
Inscripciones

Unos á otros. (at the bottom)

 77. (in the upper right-hand corner)

Historia

See Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, Painter.

There is only one state proof with burnished aquatint, except for the upper part of the spears, dry point and prior to the burin in the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum. The title has been handwritten on it, in which one can read Casa rara, pero ay mas, crossed out and under which the definitive title has been written.

A preparatory drawing for this print is in the Prado Museum.

Análisis artístico

Two characters ride on the shoulders of two others as if they were their horses. They take turns to place a pike on a wicker bull, which is held by a figure with his back to the viewer. The man on the left side of the engraving looks like a monk dressed in a habit and is mounted on an abbé wearing black clothes and buckled shoes. The other pair is composed of two noblemen, judging by their wigs and rich clothing with elegant, wide-cuffed jackets and buckled shoes. The latter are clearly reminiscent of those in Dream 16: Growing Up After Dying.

The Aragonese painter has distorted the features of the figures. The faces are cadaverous and emaciated, the eye sockets are strongly sunken and the bones of the faces are decisively marked. Through this monstrous physical appearance, it is possible that the artist is also trying to characterise them from a moral point of view.

In this engraving, Goya uses fine-grained aquatint in which the whites, achieved with the varnish reserves, and the soft burnishing of the men and the bull give a highly dramatic effect. He also uses the burin to finish off the ends of the spears.

The Prado manuscript describes this print as follows: "Thus goes the world, one mocks and bullfights another: he who used to be a bull now plays the knight in the bullring. Fortune directs the party and distributes the roles, according to the inconstancy of her whims". However, the one in the National Library comments: "The old fogies (Voltaire and Piron) are still fighting each other".

In this engraving Goya attacks the old social structure in which the nobility and the Church exploit the ignorant people, in the same way as he does in Caprice No. 42, You Who Cannot.

It is possible, as in other engravings in the series, that this image has more than one meaning and that, according to the manuscript in the National Library, Goya is referring to Voltaire (Paris, 1694-1778) and Alexis Piron (Dijon, 1689-Paris, 1773), between whom there was a rivalry that went beyond the literary.

Conservación

The plate is in rather poor condition is preserved in (National Chalcography, no. 248).

Exposiciones
  • Goya. Gemälde Zeichnungen. Graphik. Tapisserien
    Kunsthalle Basel
    Basle
    1953
    from January 23th to April 12th 1953
  • Goya y el espíritu de la Ilustración
    Museo Nacional del Prado
    Madrid
    1988
    from October 6th to December 18th 1988. Exhibited also at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, January 18th to March 26th 1989; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Nueva York, May 9th to July 16th 1989, Madrid curator Manuela B. Mena Marqués, scientific directors Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez and Eleanor A. Sayre
  • 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
  • Francisco de Goya
    Museo d'Arte Moderna
    Lugano
    1996
    exhibition celebrated from September 22nd to November 17th.
  • Francisco Goya. Sein leben im spiegel der graphik. Fuendetodos 1746-1828 Bordeaux. 1746-1996
    Galerie Kornfeld
    Bern
    1996
    from November 21st 1996 to January 1997
  • Goya e la tradizione italiana
    Fondazione Magnani Rocca
    Mamiano di Traversetolo (Parma)
    2006
    consultant editors Fred Licht and Simona Tosini Pizzetti. From September 9th to December 3th 2006
  • Goya. Opera grafica
    Pinacoteca del Castello di San Giorgio
    Legnano
    2006
    exhibition celebrated from December 16th 2006 to April 1st 2007
  • Goya e Italia
    Museo de Zaragoza
    Zaragoza
    2008
    organized by the Fundación Goya en Aragóna, consultant editor Joan Sureda Pons. From June 1st to September 15th 2008
  • Goya et la modernité
    Pinacothèque de Paris
    París
    2013
    from October 11st 2013 to March 16th 2014
  • Goya: Order and disorder
    Museum of Fine Arts
    Boston
    2014
Bibliografía
  • HARRIS, Tomás
    Goya engravings and lithographs, vol. I y II.
    Bibliography']['number
    OxfordBruno Cassirer
    1964
    p.155, cat. 112
  • GASSIER, Pierre y WILSON, Juliet
    Vie et ouvre de Francisco de Goya
    Bibliography']['number
    ParísOffice du livre
    1970
    p.185, cat. 607
  • WILSON BAREAU, Juliet
    Goya, la década de los caprichos: dibujos y aguafuertes
    Bibliography']['number
    MadridReal Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando
    1992
    pp.285-287, cat. 174-175
  • 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.115, cat. 169
  • 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.380-383
  • OROPESA, Marisa and RINCÓN GARCÍA, Wilfredo
    Bibliography']['number
    ParísPinacoteca de París
    2013
    p. 241
  • ILCHMAN, Frederick y STEPANEK, Stephanie L. (comisarios)
    Goya: Order & Disorder
    Bibliography']['number
    BostonMuseum of Fine Arts Boston Publications
    2014
    pp. 336-337
  • WILSON BAREAU, Juliet
    Goya. In the Norton Simon Museum
    Bibliography']['number
    PasadenaNorton Simon Museum
    2016
    pp. 42-75
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