- Cronología
- Ca. 1797 - 1798
- Ubicación
- The Prado National Museum. Madrid, Madrid, Spain
- Dimensiones
- 195 x 140 mm
- Técnica y soporte
- Reconocimiento de la autoría de Goya
- Documented work
- Titular
- El Prado National Museum
- Ficha: realización/revisión
- 13 Sep 2022 / 27 Jun 2023
- Inventario
- D4225
79 (in pencil, top left-hand corner)
25 (in pencil, lower left corner)
N.11 (in pencil, lower left corner, under the pencilled manuscript 25)
Watermark: [Shield with helmet, bird inside, and underneath "D.N J.PH GISBERT / ALCOY" (upper half)].
On the origin of this and other preparatory drawings for The Caprices, see the commentary on the first of them, corresponding to Caprice number 1 (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, painter), and on the one corresponding to Caprice 3 (The bogeyman is Coming).
Line of provenance of this drawing: Javier Goya; Mariano Goya, 1854; Valentín Carderera, ca. 1861; Mariano Carderera, 1880; Prado Museum, 1886.
Preparatory drawing for Caprice 79. Nobody Has Seen Us.
For Matilla, this drawing criticises the conduct of those religious who, in the privacy of their monasteries, transgress the rules of virtuous behaviour and indulge in worldly excesses, represented here through drinking.
The composition is much more realistic in the preparatory study than in the print, as in the sketch the figures appear in a cellar where some merry monks are feasting. Two skylights are clearly distinguishable in the background and the scene could easily illustrate a drunken song, whereas in the print it crosses the threshold of realism into the realm of hallucination.
Goya first sketched in pencil, and then, with sanguine, he shaded the contours and created the shadows that characterise the nocturnal nature of the scene in the final print. In which the supernatural lighting, of external origin to the scene, highlights two of the figures. And the aquatint background creates an impassable wall on which the gigantic shadow of a ghost-monk, arriving from beyond the grave to toast with his colleagues, is projected.
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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. 184
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Santander2017cat. 41
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Madrid2019cat. 62
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Los Caprichos de Goya y sus dibujos preparatoriosBarcelonaInstituto Amatller de Arte Hispánico1949pp. 102-103
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Goya’s Caprichos. Beauty, Reason and CaricatureNueva JerseyPrinceton University Press1953p. 212, fig. 249
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MadridMuseo del Prado1954n. 81
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Vie et ouvre de Francisco de GoyaParísOffice du livre1970p. 185, nº 612
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Dibujos de Goya, 2 volsBarcelonaNoguer1975p. 166
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Los Caprichos de Goyacol. Serie punto y líneaBarcelonaGustavo Gili1977p. 53
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El mundo de Goya en sus dibujosMadridUrbión1979pp. 113-114
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MadridSilex1980pp. 112-113, nº 31
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MadridReal Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando1992pp. 303-304
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MadridMuseo Nacional del Prado1999p. 389
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SantanderFundación Botín y Museo Nacional del Prado2017pp. 84, 180
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MadridMuseo Nacional del Prado2019p. 133