Francisco de Goya

Because it was sensitive

Clasificación
Because it was sensitive
Datos Generales
Cronología
Ca. 1797 - 1799
Dimensiones
219 x 153 mm
Técnica y soporte
Aguatinta y punta seca
Reconocimiento de la autoría de Goya
Undisputed work
Ficha: realización/revisión
13 Aug 2013 / 29 May 2024
Inventario
225
Inscripciones

Por que fue sensible. (at the bottom)

32.(in the upper right-hand corner)

Historia

See Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, Painter.

A proof before the letter, preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris, reveals a different manuscript title, the Soleda, without the final "d". Two other proofs exist, one of them with the definitive title also in manuscript.

A preparatory drawing for this engraving has been preserved.

Análisis artístico

In a prison cell, a young woman is shown seated on the rungs of a ladder with her hands clasped on her knees. Next to her are an earthenware vessel and the silhouette of a rat, alluding to the gloomy atmosphere and conditions in prisons at the time. The scene is illuminated by a lantern hanging overhead, slightly offset to the left.

In this print Goya demonstrates his mastery of the aquatint technique, as he uses it for the whole of the engraving, without the support of the lines of the etching. He used two types of aquatint over light strokes of drypoint. He also used some varnish reserves to achieve vibrant whites on the face and the continuous line of the woman's body.

It is likely that this engraving is a continuation of the previous one, no. 31, Pray for her. The celestina's prayers have not been heard and the prostitute who accompanied her has been imprisoned. This can be deduced from what the manuscript in the Prado Museum notes about this engraving: "As it must be! This world has its ups and downs. The life she brought with her could not stop at anything else". Furthermore, understanding of this image would be completed by the information provided by the Ayala manuscript, which indicates that it is Castillo's wife and that the young woman may have been pregnant.

Francisco del Castillo's wife was María Vicenta Mendieta, aged 32, who helped her lover, a younger cousin, Santiago San Juan, to kill her husband. Goya must have been close to the trial, held in February 1798, as his friend Juan Meléndez Valdés (Ribera del Fresno, Badajoz, 1754-Montpellier, 1817) was appointed prosecutor in the case precisely during the period when Jovellanos was Minister of Grace and Justice. María Vicenta Mendieta and her lover were executed on 23 April 1798 in the Madrid Main Square, as reported in El diario de Madrid. This event was dealt with by Goya in his works The Visit of a Friar and Interior of a Prison, in which he was more eloquent and focused not so much on the murder as on the death sentence handed down to the woman.

Conservación

The plate is preserved in the National Chalcography (no. 203).

Exposiciones
  • Goya. Gemälde Zeichnungen. Graphik. Tapisserien
    Kunsthalle Basel
    Basle
    1953
    from January 23th to April 12th 1953
  • 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. La imagen de la mujer
    Museo Nacional del Prado
    Madrid
    2001
    from October 30th 2001 to February 10th 2002. Exhibitied also at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, March 10th to June 2nd 2002, consultant editor Francisco Calvo Serraller
  • 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
  • 2022
Bibliografía
  • HARRIS, Tomás
    Goya engravings and lithographs, vol. I y II.
    OxfordBruno Cassirer
    1964
    p.103, cat. 67
  • GASSIER, Pierre y WILSON, Juliet
    Vie et ouvre de Francisco de Goya
    ParísOffice du livre
    1970
    p.180, cat. 515
  • BATICLE, Jeannine y VRIES, A.B. (comisarias)
    Goya
    ParísMinistère d’Etat-Affaires culturelles y Réunion des Musées Nationaux
    1970
    p.396, cat. 643
  • GLENDINNING, Nigel
    Porque fue sensible
    Historia 16
    Madrid
    1978
    pp.91-96
  • GLENDINNING, Nigel
    Goya and Women in the Caprichos. The case os Castillo's wife
    Apollo
    London
    1978
    pp.130-134
  • WILSON BAREAU, Juliet
    Goya, la década de los caprichos: dibujos y aguafuertes
    MadridReal Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando
    1992
    pp.173-176, cat. 101-103
  • MENA, Manuela B. y WILSON-BAREAU, Juliet (comisarias)
    Goya. El capricho y la invención. Cuadros de gabinete, bocetos y miniaturas
    MadridMuseo del Prado
    1993
    pp.272-273, fig. 186
  • SANTIAGO, Elena M. (coordinadora)
    Catálogo de las estampas de Goya en la Biblioteca Nacional
    MadridMinisterio de Educación y Cultura, Biblioteca Nacional
    1996
    p.91, cat. 121
  • 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.192-195
  • OROPESA, Marisa and RINCÓN GARCÍA, Wilfredo
    ParísPinacoteca de París
    2013
    p. 258
  • ILCHMAN, Frederick y STEPANEK, Stephanie L. (comisarios)
    Goya: Order & Disorder
    BostonMuseum of Fine Arts Boston Publications
    2014
    p. 299
  • 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. 259
  • TORAL OROPESA, María and MARTÍN MEDINA, Víctor
    Museo de Bellas Artes de Badajoz y Diputación de Badajoz
    2022
    p. 41
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