Ensayos

FRANCISCO DE GOYA (1746-1828)

Print number 60 of Los Caprichos, 1799.

12th edition, 1937, Calcografía Nacional.

Etching and aquatint on old Japanese paper with seal of the Ministerio Instrucción Pública.

Numbered on the reverse “11”.

Good condition. Full margins.

Goya’s portrait of the world of witchcraft challenges us in an ambiguous way. Despite the undeniable air of burlesque that emanated from the entire Caprichos series, it does not avoid the unease produced by the stark images of sorcerers and the bewitched. In Goya, satire coexists with the terrible, the mockery is bitter, because his figures retain, however, the halo of evil and terror that was popularly attributed to them.

Goya uses the same iconography, the same topics that the Holy Inquisition and the popular creed attributed to witches: covens, magical flights, goblins and demons, but he subtly changes the tone and with it the interpretive code. In the midst of the horror a sense of vulgarity and pathos emerges.

In this print Goya represents the first witchcraft lessons presided over by the Great Bastard. The disturbing image of the demon contrasts with the ridiculous maneuvers of the apprentices. In the autograph manuscript of the Prado you can read: “Poco a poco se va adelantando ya hace pinitos y con el tiempo sabrá más que su maestra”. (“Little by little he is getting ahead, he is already making first steps and with time he will know more than his teacher.”)