Francisco de Goya

Datos Generales
Cronología
Ca. 1797 - 1799
Dimensiones
210 x 167 mm
Técnica y soporte
Aguafuerte, aguatinta y punta seca
Reconocimiento de la autoría de Goya
Undisputed work
Ficha: realización/revisión
09 Jan 2011 / 29 May 2024
Inventario
225
Inscripciones

Allá vá eso (at the bottom)

66. (in the upper right-hand corner)

Historia

See Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, Painter.

There is a proof of a pre-print state with aquatint and drypoint preserved in the National Library in Madrid.

A preparatory drawing of this engraving is in the Prado Museum.

Análisis artístico

As part of the series of The Caprices, Goya continues to depict scenes of witches flying. In this case, the protagonist is an old sorceress who teaches a younger woman to fly by means of bat wings. In the print we can see the two naked bodies of the women, first of all that of the older one who is tutoring the younger one behind her and whom she looks at by turning her head. Both are holding on with their arms above their heads to what looks like a crutch, on the end of which we see a cat with bristling hair. The teacher is also holding a snake in one of her hands. In the background of the engraving, a village stretching out on a plain can be seen.

The white areas on the face of the cat, on the stomach and on the legs of the old witch barely contrast with the aquatint, which has been worn away in the course of the various prints.

In the manuscript in the Prado Museum there is a reference to the Diablo Cojuelo (Little Devil). This was a character from popular 17th-century Castilian literature. Luis Vélez de Guevara (Écija, Seville, 1579-Madrid, 1644) wrote a work entitled The Little Devil (1641) in which he narrates the adventures of this character in Madrid together with the nobleman Don Cleofás Leandro Pérez Zambullo. Furthermore, Cojuelo is regularly referred to in a number of Castilian proverbs and sayings, and was even considered to be a good messenger of love, to the extent that he was invoked in several incantations.

The manuscript in the National Library provides us with a somewhat more precise interpretation than in the other texts that have come down to us. It reads as follows: "The cunning old women are the ones who lose the young women; they drive them away, and teach them to be snakes and martens of the pockets".

The witches' forceful anatomies, their muscular and almost masculine forms, are reminiscent of some of the Michelangelo images in the Sistine Chapel. It is possible that, albeit as a distant echo, this is one of the visual sources to which Goya turned when creating images such as the one we are dealing with here.

Conservación

The aquatint of the plate is considerably worn. There is a scratch in the sky, under the figures on the left side ( National Chalcography, no. 237).

Exposiciones
  • De grafiek van Goya
    Rijksmuseum Rijksprentenkabinet
    Amsterdam
    1970
    from November 13th 1970 to January 17th 1971
  • Goya. Das Zeitalter der Revolucionen. Kunst um 1800 (1980 – 1981)
    Hamburger Kunsthalle
    Hamburg
    1980
  • 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.
  • Ydioma universal: Goya en la Biblioteca Nacional
    Biblioteca Nacional
    Madrid
    1996
    from September 19th to December 15th 1996
  • 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
  • 2022
Bibliografía
  • HARRIS, Tomás
    Goya engravings and lithographs, vol. I y II.
    OxfordBruno Cassirer
    1964
    p.143, cat. 101
  • GASSIER, Pierre y WILSON, Juliet
    Vie et ouvre de Francisco de Goya
    ParísOffice du livre
    1970
    p.183, cat. 583
  • WILSON BAREAU, Juliet
    Goya, la década de los caprichos: dibujos y aguafuertes
    MadridReal Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando
    1992
    pp.52-53, cat. 32
  • 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
    MadridMuseo Nacional del Prado
    1999
    pp.334-337
  • OROPESA, Marisa and RINCÓN GARCÍA, Wilfredo
    ParísPinacoteca de París
    2013
    p. 234
  • ILCHMAN, Frederick y STEPANEK, Stephanie L. (comisarios)
    Goya: Order & Disorder
    BostonMuseum of Fine Arts Boston Publications
    2014
    pp. 310-314
  • WILSON BAREAU, Juliet
    Goya. In the Norton Simon Museum
    PasadenaNorton Simon Museum
    2016
    pp. 42-75
  • TORAL OROPESA, María and MARTÍN MEDINA, Víctor
    Museo de Bellas Artes de Badajoz y Diputación de Badajoz
    2022
    p. 48
Enlaces externos
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