Francisco de Goya

If he will be resurrected?

Clasificación
If he will be resurrected?
Datos Generales
Cronología
Ca. 1820 - 1823
Dimensiones
178 x 220 mm
Técnica y soporte
Etching and burnisher
Reconocimiento de la autoría de Goya
Undisputed work
Titular
Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection
Ficha: realización/revisión
06 Jan 2011 / 05 Jun 2023
Inventario
225
Historia

See Sad forebodings of what is to come.

The title of the print was handwritten by Goya on the first and only series known to us at the time of its production, which the painter gave to his friend Agustín Ceán Bermúdez. Thus the title was subsequently engraved on the plate without any modification from Ceán Bermúdez's copy for the first edition of the Disasters of War published by the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid in 1863.

A preparatory drawing of this engraving is in the Prado Museum

Análisis artístico

The same glowing woman who was being buried in print no. 79, Truth Died, lies in the foreground in this print. The female figure is awakening from her sleep and coming back to life. On the right, where Justice was in print no. 79, Goya has placed a monk holding a stone in one hand and a small trumpet in the other. Next to him is an animal-headed figure with feline features, although it could perhaps be a dog, which in Goya's iconography alludes to greed. Behind him are some figures that resemble vampires. All of them are preparing, in a somewhat threatening attitude, for the awakening of the woman in the engraving, as if they see this as a danger. Only one female figure, strongly illuminated by the halo of light of the woman who is about to be resurrected, seems hopeful.

Various explanations have been put forward for this engraving. In principle, it could be thought that Goya is raising in this image the question of what would happen if the Constitution were to be reintroduced, what all the figures who feel threatened by this possibility might do and how they would defend themselves in such a circumstance. Another interpretation of this print is that the Aragonese painter knew that the Constitution would be reintroduced during the second constitutional period, so he accentuated the verb in the title as if he were certain of the imminence of this event.

Goya may have drawn on various sources of inspiration to create this image. It is possible that the painter was familiar with Psalm 85:11 of the Bible, which states: "Truth shall spring out of the earth; and justice shall look down from heaven". He probably also read the work by Antonio Bernabéu, published in 1820, Spain's Fortunate Spain through the Life of the Constitution and the Death of the Inquisition, in which he wrote: "At last the slumbering reason has awakened and opened the way to the empire of the lights; but it would please God that all nations, sharing abundantly in its salutary influence, had finally shaken off the odious yoke imposed on them by the dark and implacable tyranny of superstition".

Nor should we exclude the possibility that the artist was inspired, as he does in other engravings in this series, by the work of Giambattista Casti (Viterbo or Acquapendente, 1724-Paris, 1803) Gli animali parlanti (1801), in which the return of Truth is announced in a halo of light at the end of the book.

This engraving can be interpreted as a positive contribution to other prints from the Caprichos empháticos in which circumstances that do not augur well are depicted, as can be seen in engraving no. 69, Nothing, It Will Say or in the one that precedes the one we are dealing with here, no. 79, Truth Died.  Jesusa Vega points out that this image clearly shows the secularisation of a sacred theme which, in this case, is the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. In this sense, we could speak of a return to engraving no. 1, Sad forebodings of what is to happen, in which the same thing is done with the prayer in the Garden of Olives. This aspect leads us to believe that Goya initially intended this print to be the last in the series.

This engraving can be related to other works by Goya, especially Capricho no. 43, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, in which a positive figure is stalked by a multitude of disturbing and threatening beings.

Conservación

The plate is in the National Chalcography (cat. 331).

Exposiciones
  • De grafiek van Goya
    Rijksmuseum Rijksprentenkabinet
    Amsterdam
    1970
    from November 13th 1970 to January 17th 1971
  • Goya. Das Zeitalter der Revolucionen. Kunst um 1800 (1980 – 1981)
    Hamburger Kunsthalle
    Hamburg
    1980
  • Goya y el espíritu de la Ilustración
    Museo Nacional del Prado
    Madrid
    1988
    from October 6th to December 18th 1988. Exhibited also at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, January 18th to March 26th 1989; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Nueva York, May 9th to July 16th 1989, Madrid curator Manuela B. Mena Marqués, scientific directors Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez and Eleanor A. Sayre
  • 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
  • Francisco de Goya
    Museo d'Arte Moderna
    Lugano
    1996
    exhibition celebrated from September 22nd to November 17th.
  • Das Capriccio als Kunstprinzip
    Wallraf-Richartz-Museum,
    1996
    from December 8th 1996 to February 16th 1997, exhibited also in Zurich, Kunsthaus, from March 14th marzo 1997 to June 1st 1997 and in Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum mi Palais Harrach, from June 29th 1997 to September 21st 1997.
  • Francisco Goya. Capricci, follie e disastri della guerra
    San Donato Milanese
    2000
    Opere grafiche della Fondazione Antonio Mazzotta
  • Goya en tiempos de guerra
    Museo Nacional del Prado
    Madrid
    2008
    consultant editor Manuela B. Mena Marqués, from April 14th to July 13th 2008
  • 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
  • 2022
Bibliografía
  • BERUETE Y MONET, Aureliano de
    Goya, grabador
    MadridBlass S.A.
    1918
    cat. 182
  • HARRIS, Tomás
    Goya engravings and lithographs, vol. I y II.
    OxfordBruno Cassirer
    1964
    cat. 200
  • GASSIER, Pierre y WILSON, Juliet
    Vie et ouvre de Francisco de Goya
    ParísOffice du livre
    1970
    cat. 1134
  • GASSIER, Pierre
    Dibujos de Goya: Los álbumes
    BarcelonaNoguer
    1973
  • GLENDINNING, Nigel
    A solution to the enigma of Goya’s emphatic caprices nº 65-80 of The Disasters of War
    Apollo
    1978
    pp.186-191
  • PÉREZ SÁNCHEZ, Alfonso E. y SAYRE, Eleanor A. (directores) and MENA, Manuela B. (comisaria)
    Goya y el espíritu de la Ilustración
    MadridMuseo del Prado
    1988
    pp.450-451, cat. 162
  • PAZ, Alfredo de
    Goya. Arte e condizione umana
    NaplesLiguori editore
    1990
    lam. 206
  • SANTIAGO, Elena M. (coordinadora)
    Catálogo de las estampas de Goya en la Biblioteca Nacional
    MadridMinisterio de Educación y Cultura, Biblioteca Nacional
    1996
    cat. 305
  • BLAS BENITO, Javier and MATILLA, José Manuel
    El Libro de los Desastres de la Guerra
    MadridMuseo del Prado
    2000
    pp.159-162
  • OROPESA, Marisa and RINCÓN GARCÍA, Wilfredo
    ParísPinacoteca de París
    2013
    p. 159
  • ILCHMAN, Frederick y STEPANEK, Stephanie L. (comisarios)
    Goya: Order & Disorder
    BostonMuseum of Fine Arts Boston Publications
    2014
    p. 281
  • WILSON BAREAU, Juliet
    Goya. In the Norton Simon Museum
    PasadenaNorton Simon Museum
    2016
    pp. 114-151
  • TORAL OROPESA, María and MARTÍN MEDINA, Víctor
    Museo de Bellas Artes de Badajoz y Diputación de Badajoz
    2022
    p. 87
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