Francisco de Goya

Datos Generales
Cronología
Ca. 1797 - 1799
Dimensiones
219 x 150 mm
Técnica y soporte
Aguafuerte, aguatinta bruñida, punta seca y buril
Reconocimiento de la autoría de Goya
Undisputed work
Ficha: realización/revisión
30 Nov 2010 / 29 May 2024
Inventario
225
Inscripciones

Those powders (in the lower part)

23. (in the upper right-hand corner)

Historia

See Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, Painter.

A single state proof is known to exist in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris, belonging to an early version that was discarded. It has the peculiarity that it is only done with aquatint, although it seems that Goya ended up using the point of the etching in some areas such as the lines of the victim's skirt.

The final version was done in etching; Goya simplified the use of aquatint by using a single tone throughout the background, which allowed him to characterise the figures in the crowd more accurately.

A preparatory drawing for this engraving has survived.

Análisis artístico

A prisoner - in the Goyaesque engraving it is really difficult to tell whether it is a man or a woman - is seated on a raised platform. He wears a sambenito, a chasuble that was often decorated with scenes alluding to hell, and a coroza on his head. He is being subjected to a singular act of faith that was celebrated with a single prisoner, either inside a church or in a public space. In front of him stands a pulpit from which an inquisitor reads the charges from an open book. Around the pulpit and the stage, a crowd witnesses the trial. We can only make out two friars in the foreground because Goya has superficially and indistinctly captured the rest of the faces.

The explanations in the manuscripts clarify engraving no. 23 of the series; the Ayala engraving reads: " Self-belief. A rabble of foolish priests and friars make a meal of such functions. Perico the lame man who gave powder to lovers. The one in the Prado Museum reads: "Badly done! To treat a woman of honour, who for a frivolous woman served the whole world diligently, in this way is wrong! Finally, the manuscript in the National Library notes that "the rabble of priests and friars is the one who lives with the feasts of the autillos (Perico the lame)".

Goya, as an Enlightenment painter, harshly criticised the autos de fe to which those accused of witchcraft were subjected. The painter finds it difficult to understand how the accounts of witchcraft could be given credibility and, if so, these activities should be judged by the courts and not by the Inquisition.

The somewhat cryptic title may, according to Edith Helman, refer to the popular saying "the dust has turned to mud". In reality, this type of act in which witchcraft is judged is followed by an equally irrational gesture such as the death penalty. Goya demonstrated in some of the engravings in this series, as well as in The Disasters of War, an important awareness of the importance of the death penalty.

Conservación

The plate is preserved in the National Chalcography (no. 194).

Exposiciones
  • Goya. Gemälde Zeichnungen. Graphik. Tapisserien
    Kunsthalle Basel
    Basle
    1953
    from January 23th to April 12th 1953
  • 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 dans les collections suisses
    Fundación Pierre Gianadda
    Martigny
    1982
    consultant editor Pierre Gassier. From June 12th to August 29th 1982
  • 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
  • Goya
    Nationalmuseum
    Stockholm
    1994
    consultant editors Juan J. Luna and Görel Cavalli-Björkman. From October 7th 1994 to January 8th 1995
  • 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
  • Francisco Goya. Capricci, follie e disastri della guerra
    San Donato Milanese
    2000
    Opere grafiche della Fondazione Antonio Mazzotta
  • 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 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
  • Madrid
    2017
  • Agen
    2019
  • Hamburg
    2019
  • 2022
Bibliografía
  • HARRIS, Tomás
    Goya engravings and lithographs, vol. I y II.
    OxfordBruno Cassirer
    1964
    p.93, cat. 58
  • GASSIER, Pierre y WILSON, Juliet
    Vie et ouvre de Francisco de Goya
    ParísOffice du livre
    1970
    p.179, cat. 498
  • WILSON BAREAU, Juliet
    Goya, la década de los caprichos: dibujos y aguafuertes
    MadridReal Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando
    1992
    pp.160-163, cat. 93-95
  • SANTIAGO, Elena M. (coordinadora)
    Catálogo de las estampas de Goya en la Biblioteca Nacional
    MadridMinisterio de Educación y Cultura, Biblioteca Nacional
    1996
    p.85, cat. 111
  • 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.156-159
  • OROPESA, Marisa and RINCÓN GARCÍA, Wilfredo
    ParísPinacoteca de París
    2013
    p. 216
  • ILCHMAN, Frederick y STEPANEK, Stephanie L. (comisarios)
    Goya: Order & Disorder
    BostonMuseum of Fine Arts Boston Publications
    2014
    p. 300
  • WILSON BAREAU, Juliet
    Goya. In the Norton Simon Museum
    PasadenaNorton Simon Museum
    2016
    pp. 42-75
  • CALVO RUATA, José Ignacio, BORRÁS GUALIS, Gonzalo M. and MARTÍNEZ HERRANZ, Amparo
    ZaragozaGobierno de Aragón y Fundación Bancaria Ibercaja
    2017
    p. 271
  • MOTTIN, Bruno, EFEDAQUE, Adrien and WILSON-BAREU, Juliet
    AgenSnoeck
    2019
    p. 152
  • TACK, Ifee and PISOT, Sandra
    HamburgHirmer
    2019
    p. 311
  • TORAL OROPESA, María and MARTÍN MEDINA, Víctor
    Museo de Bellas Artes de Badajoz y Diputación de Badajoz
    2022
    p. 37
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