It is time

In the last print of the Caprices series, four friars are waking up, seemingly waking from their sleep. The one in the foreground holds a hand to his open mouth and shows his slender, knee-length legs. Behind him, another raises his arms and opens his mouth, as do the other two figures in the background.

The aquatint in this print is very soft and barely contrasts with the whites of the figures, while the burnishing is very fine. In the standing figure and in the background of the image, the burin touches can be seen.

In the manuscript in the National Library this engraving is explained as follows: "The bishops and canons, after sleeping soundly, get up late to go to mass; they yawn; they wait and think only of living a good life without working at all. They yawn, they wait and think only of having a good life without working at all. One of them wears on his cloak the sideburns and joints of the young boys who are spoiled by masturbation". The Prado manuscript states that with this image Goya suggests that the time has come to banish all the goblins, witches and beings of popular fantasy from this world in order to let reason awaken: "As soon as dawn breaks, witches, goblins, visions and ghosts flee, each to his own side. It is a good thing that these people can only be seen at night and in the dark! No one has been able to find out where they lock themselves up and hide during the day. Whoever managed to catch a burrow of Goblins and show them inside a cage at 10 o'clock in the morning in the Puerta del Sol, does not need any other majororazgo".

The Aragonese painter continued the criticism he had made in various prints from the series of The Caprices of the relaxed lifestyle of some members of the Church and their often licentious and reprehensible customs. At the same time, in this image he expresses his wish for the end of the superstitions in which a large part of Spanish society lived. These two aspects are not unconnected, but the second is conducive to the largely unjustified privileges of certain social sectors, especially the clergy.