- Cronología
- Ca. 1797 - 1799
- Dimensiones
- 208 x 152 mm
- Técnica y soporte
- Etching and burnished aquatint
- Reconocimiento de la autoría de Goya
- Undisputed work
- Ficha: realización/revisión
- 19 Dec 2010 / 29 May 2024
- Inventario
- 225
Mucho hay que chupar. (at the bottom)
45. (in the upper right-hand corner)
See Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, Painter.
A preparatory drawing of this engraving is in the Prado Museum.
A group of three witches, or alcahuetas, are resting while drinking snuff, a preparation made from tobacco which, after being flavoured, was consumed through the nose. They are seated on the floor and are dressed in large robes that cover their heads in the case of the two in the foreground. Their weathered and aged faces have deformed, almost caricatured features and their hands are bony, ending in long nails. In the background we can see two bats taking flight and, on the front of the engraving, Goya has painted a basket full of children's bodies.
The artist used a medium-grain aquatint that contrasts with the white areas of the two figures in the centre and the children in the basket.
In Ayala's manuscript we are told the following about this engraving: "It seems that man is born and lives to be sucked. The ruffians keep a good account of the baskets of children, which are made by their means, or are disgraced with their abortifacients". This idea is reiterated in two other manuscripts, in the Prado Museum and the Biblioteca Nacional, in which the dedication of these three characters to abortive practices is noted.
This engraving should be related to the previous one, No. 44, Thin spindle, in which the painter depicted three women who could be witches or procuresses who also performed abortions, as can be seen from the presence of the bodies of children, perhaps foetuses, hanging from the ceiling.
The plate suffered a scratch at the height of the figure in the background by accident during printing, which is not noticed in the first printings made with this copper ( National Chalcography, no. 216).
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Goya. Gemälde Zeichnungen. Graphik. TapisserienKunsthalle BaselBasle1953from January 23th to April 12th 1953cat. 232
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Goya dans les collections suissesFundación Pierre GianaddaMartigny1982consultant editor Pierre Gassier. From June 12th to August 29th 1982cat. 53
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Goya. La década de Los CaprichosMadrid1992organized 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 1993cat. 56
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Francisco de GoyaMuseo d'Arte ModernaLugano1996exhibition celebrated from September 22nd to November 17th.cat. 45, p.72
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Francisco Goya. Sein leben im spiegel der graphik. Fuendetodos 1746-1828 Bordeaux. 1746-1996Galerie KornfeldBern1996from November 21st 1996 to January 1997cat. 51
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Francisco Goya. Capricci, follie e disastri della guerraSan Donato Milanese2000Opere grafiche della Fondazione Antonio Mazzottap.35, cat. 45
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Goya e la tradizione italianaFondazione Magnani RoccaMamiano di Traversetolo (Parma)2006consultant editors Fred Licht and Simona Tosini Pizzetti. From September 9th to December 3th 2006cat. 45, p.156
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Goya. Opera graficaPinacoteca del Castello di San GiorgioLegnano2006exhibition celebrated from December 16th 2006 to April 1st 2007p.36
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Goya e ItaliaMuseo de ZaragozaZaragoza2008organized by the Fundación Goya en Aragóna, consultant editor Joan Sureda Pons. From June 1st to September 15th 2008cat. 329
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Goya et la modernitéPinacothèque de ParisParís2013from October 11st 2013 to March 16th 2014cat. 157
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Goya engravings and lithographs, vol. I y II.OxfordBruno Cassirer1964p.118, cat. 80
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Vie et ouvre de Francisco de GoyaParísOffice du livre1970p.181, cat. 541
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Goya, la década de los caprichos: dibujos y aguafuertesMadridReal Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando1992pp.94-95, cat. 56
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Catálogo de las estampas de Goya en la Biblioteca NacionalMadridMinisterio de Educación y Cultura, Biblioteca Nacional1996p.97, cat. 134
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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 ediciónMadridMuseo Nacional del Prado1999pp.240-245
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ParísPinacoteca de París2013p. 222
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Goya. In the Norton Simon MuseumPasadenaNorton Simon Museum2016pp. 42-75