Francisco de Goya

Datos Generales
Cronología
1797 - 1798
Ubicación
The Prado National Museum. Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Dimensiones
207 x 147 mm
Técnica y soporte
Reconocimiento de la autoría de Goya
Documented work
Titular
El Prado National Museum
Ficha: realización/revisión
20 Aug 2021 / 08 Jun 2023
Inventario
D4362r
Inscripciones

3 (black pencil, upper left)

20 (black pencil, lower left)

Watermark: Guarro, letters "GVA [tower] RRO" (lower half)

Historia

By inheritance it passed in 1828 to Javier Goya, the painter's son, and in 1854 to Mariano Goya y Goicoechea, the artist's grandson. It was subsequently owned successively by Valentín Carderera (ca. 1861) and Mariano Carderera (ca. 1880). In 1886 it was acquired from Mariano Carderera by the Directorate General of Public Instruction and was assigned to the Prado Museum, where it is now located.

Análisis artístico

See Woman / Snake

In this drawing Goya depicted a young man dressed as a student, in an attitude of shouting with his arms outstretched, standing before a mirror in which is reflected the figure of a giant frog in the same posture as himself. According to the great Swiss physiognomist Johann Kaspar Lavater's four-volume work Physiognomische Fragmente zur Beförderung der Menschenkenntnis und Menschenliebe, written between 1775 and 1778, the frog was the prototype of disgusting bestiality. It is undoubtedly possible that Goya was familiar with this work, which may have served as a reference for him, through a French edition. According to Folke Nördstrom, the scene represents the phlegmatic temperament.

The similarity between the two figures is evident, especially in the student's gesture, which is repeated in the animal. To further emphasise the resemblance between the two, Goya visually linked them through the parallel lines that he drew beside the frog, simulating a marshy ground, and which continue on the lower part of the human figure.

On the reverse of this drawing, which is mainly done in pen and is characterised by its masterly and modern abbreviated technique, Goya produced another entitled Figure with chastity belts, sketches of two figures and frog.


Separate from the Magic Mirror series, although related to it, there is another drawing in which the protagonists are two giant humanised frogs: Human Frogs Embracing

Exposiciones
  • Los dibujos de Goya
    Museo Provincial de Zaragoza
    Zaragoza
    1978
    exhibition organized by Museo Provincial de Zaragoza, Ministerio de Cultura and Ayuntamiento de Zaragoza, exhibition guide written by Miguel Beltrán Lloris and Micaela Pérez Sáenz. October 1978
Bibliografía
  • SÁNCHEZ CANTÓN. Francisco Javier
    MadridMuseo del Prado
    1954
    n. 271
  • NORDSTRÖM, Folke
    Goya, Saturno y melancolía. Consideraciones sobre el arte de Goya
    StockholmAlquimis & Wiksell
    1962
    pp. 94-115
  • GASSIER, Pierre y WILSON, Juliet
    Vie et ouvre de Francisco de Goya
    ParísOffice du livre
    1970
    p. 187, cat. 653
  • GASSIER, Pierre
    Dibujos de Goya, 2 vols
    BarcelonaNoguer
    1975
    p. 496, cat. 325
  • LAFUENTE FERRARI, Enrique
    El mundo de Goya en sus dibujos
    MadridUrbión
    1979
    p. 126
  • ANDIOC, René
    Calcografía Nacional y National Museum of Contemporary Arts de Seúl
    2000
    pp. 171-179
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