Francisco de Goya

If you broke the pitcher

Clasificación
If you broke the pitcher
Datos Generales
Cronología
Ca. 1797 - 1799
Dimensiones
209 x 152 mm
Técnica y soporte
Aguafuerte, aguatinta y punta seca
Reconocimiento de la autoría de Goya
Attributed work
Ficha: realización/revisión
01 Dec 2010 / 29 May 2024
Inventario
225
Inscripciones

If you broke the pitcher. (at the bottom)

25. (in the upper right-hand corner)

Historia

See Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, Painter.

Four state proofs are known to exist before the letter in which the child's bare bottom was not modelled anywhere. Goya later added a few dry-point touches to give it a more rounded shape. On one of these proofs, the one in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris, the lower part of the manuscript reads This is how the wrongdoer is paid, although this title was changed, as can be seen in another state proof in which good calligraphy is used to serve the handwriting engraver.

A preparatory drawing for this engraving is preserved in the Prado Museum in Madrid.

 

Análisis artístico

In the middle of the engraving, a woman with a rather coarse face is beating a child with a shoe, and we can see her face with a pained expression. In the background there are clothes hanging on two ropes, as well as a basket, which leads us to think that the woman was doing the laundry. The reason for the beating is that the boy has broken a pitcher, which lies shattered in the foreground.

The three manuscripts explaining the engravings in the series of The Caprices emphasise the mother's disproportionate reaction to the child's mischief.

Education was, in the minds of the Enlightenment, the foundation on which to build the happiness and progress of any society. It is possible that this Goyaesque engraving has to do with an anecdote told by the editor of The Censor, a Madrid newspaper known to Goya's circle of enlightened friends. The latter reported that he had once entered a friend's house and caught him beating his son. He asked him what was the cause of this punishment, to which the father replied that his son had broken a Chinese cup. In the aforementioned newspaper, it was common to hear anecdotes of this kind criticising the excessive nature of certain punishments. These punishments did more harm than good, as they confused children's ability to discern real wrongdoing. In addition, Goya may have echoed the theories of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (Zurich, 1746-Brugg, 1827) against punishment as a pedagogical method.

The education of children appears in many other engravings in this series, as well as in the painting entitled The letter with blood enters, in which the painter captures a scene in which a child is brutally taught in a school.

Conservación

The plate is preserved in the National Chalcography (no. 196).

Exposiciones
  • Goya. Gemälde Zeichnungen. Graphik. Tapisserien
    Kunsthalle Basel
    Basle
    1953
    from January 23th to April 12th 1953
  • 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 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
  • Hamburg
    2019
  • 2022
Bibliografía
  • HARRIS, Tomás
    Goya engravings and lithographs, vol. I y II.
    OxfordBruno Cassirer
    1964
    p.95, cat. 60
  • GASSIER, Pierre y WILSON, Juliet
    Vie et ouvre de Francisco de Goya
    ParísOffice du livre
    1970
    p.179, cat. 500
  • WILSON BAREAU, Juliet
    Goya, la década de los caprichos: dibujos y aguafuertes
    MadridReal Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando
    1992
    pp.77-79, cat. 46-47
  • SANTIAGO, Elena M. (coordinadora)
    Catálogo de las estampas de Goya en la Biblioteca Nacional
    MadridMinisterio de Educación y Cultura, Biblioteca Nacional
    1996
    p.87, cat. 113-114
  • 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.164-167
  • POU, Anna
    Francisco Goya. Los Caprichos
    BarcelonaEdiciones de la Central
    2011
    pp.40-42
  • OROPESA, Marisa and RINCÓN GARCÍA, Wilfredo
    ParísPinacoteca de París
    2013
    p. 203
  • ILCHMAN, Frederick y STEPANEK, Stephanie L. (comisarios)
    Goya: Order & Disorder
    BostonMuseum of Fine Arts Boston Publications
    2014
    p. 116
  • WILSON BAREAU, Juliet
    Goya. In the Norton Simon Museum
    PasadenaNorton Simon Museum
    2016
    pp. 42-75
  • TACK, Ifee and PISOT, Sandra
    HamburgHirmer
    2019
    p. 249
  • TORAL OROPESA, María and MARTÍN MEDINA, Víctor
    Museo de Bellas Artes de Badajoz y Diputación de Badajoz
    2022
    p. 38
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