Los Caprichos Is a Set of 80 Etchings First Published in 1799

Lo s Ca p r i c h o s by Francisco de GOYA from the AlburyCity Collection

Education Kit Francisco de Goya’s Los Caprichos is a set of 80 etchings first published in 1799. This exhibition features an early fifth edition, probably printed between 1881 and 1886.

Contents

THEMES Goya’s Life and Times 3 Animals Beasts and Monsters 4 Love and Death: Relationships 5 Technique and Style 6

VISITING THE EXHIBITION Los Caprichos Discovery Trail 7 Murray High’s Guide to Goya 9

GOYA IN THE CLASSROOM 15

Acknowledgements

Exhibitions Coordinator - Bianca Acimovic Learning and Outreach Coordinator - Caryn Giblin Learning and Outreach Officers - Tracy Piltz, Dave Smith Murray High School Art Department - Ann Janczuk and Nicola Marshall

Education Kit compiled by Dave Smith Goya’s Life and Times

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes was born in Fuendetodos, Spain in 1746 and died in Bordeaux, France in 1828. Throughout a 60-year career as an artist, he created works that demonstrated enormous variety and creativity in his approach to art.

As a teenager Goya worked as an apprentice to the artist José Luzán, from whom he learned to draw by copying prints of several masters. By 1771 he had established himself as an independent painter in Saragossa and at the age of 28 he was able to secure a position in Madrid painting cartoons for the Royal Tapestry Manufactory. By 1786 Goya had earned the title of Painter to the King and was able to paint with increased independence while creating portraits of members of the Spanish royal familyi.

However, Goya is perhaps better known for creating images critical of changes in the world around him. His later work famously records scenes of violence and destruction during the Napoleonic wars and openly comments on social injustice and senseless cruelty within Spanish society.

Goya bravely expressed these feelings through his paintings and graphic art. Los Caprichos, his first series of etchings, clearly shows his willingness to record the world as he really saw it, with all its horror, tragedy and ugliness.

[Plate 1] Francisco Goya y Lucientes, Painter

i Gudiol, J. 1985. Goya, Harry N. Abrams Inc, New York 3 Animals, Beasts and Monsters

Many of the 80 prints in Los Caprichos contain imagery of animals, beasts and monsters in a variety of comical, melancholy and sometimes disturbing compositions. Donkeys, parrots, bats, goblins, devils and witches not only illustrate the extremes of Goya’s imagination but symbolise his observations of the darker themes of human behaviour in Spanish societyi.

In Plates 37 to 42 a series of donkeys dressed as humans plays on the common association of the donkey or ass with foolish or stubborn behaviour. Works portraying the donkey as teacher, music connoisseur or doctor, question roles of knowledge and wisdom in society, while another showing a donkey having his portrait painted by a monkey ridicules the pretentiousii.

Bats also feature heavily in Los Caprichos, often symbolising insanity. In plate 43, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, bats and other winged creatures hauntingly illustrate the sleeping man’s unconscious fears. Again in There is Plenty to Suck (plate 45) bats add menace to a monstrous scene of witches feeding on the mutilated remains of small children, an image Goya made after reading about acts of infanticideiii.

Goya’s distorted caricatures of animals and monsters, and everything in between, examine the more comical and disturbing examples of human behaviour in 18th century Spanish society. For the viewer, they are often bizarre, puzzling or uncomfortable to look at, but without a doubt they stimulate imagination and reflection.

i Dremann, S. 2003. Animals of Imagination, Palo Alto Weekly Online. http://www.paloaltoonline.com/weekly/morgue/2003/2003_02_21.creatures21ja.html ii Bulliet, R. 2000. Hunters, Herders and Hamburgers: The Past and Future of Human-Animal Relationships iii http://artsphere.co.uk/blog/2010/06/fantasies-follies-and-disasters-the-prints-of-francisco-de- goya/ 4 Love and Death: Relationships

Many of the first 40 prints in Goya’s Los Caprichos explore relationships between men and women across different levels of society. Goya observes and exaggerates a variety of interactions between men and women, ranging from the tragedy of love lost, to the more superficial realities of arranged marriages and high society courtship.

Plates 9 and 10 show the tragic end of two relationships through death. Love and Death (plate 10) warns proud males against the folly of duelling. Mortally wounded, a young man dies in his lover’s arms. In contrast, prints like What a sacrifice! (plate 14) and Which of them is more overcome? (plate 27) deal sarcastically with the less passionate relationships of convenience or necessity. In both, a woman is shown to be less than impressed by her male suitor.

In Los Caprichos, Goya looks at a range of relationships between men and women. Many, such as They Carried Her Off (plate 8) are much darker and allude to issues of theft, blackmail, kidnapping and abuse. Across these scenes, both men and women are shown as victims and oppressors by Goyai.

[Plate 10] Love and Death

i http://www.artoftheprint.com/artistpages/goya_francisco_yaeshora.htm 5 Technique and Style

Though primarily a painter in his role as an artist to the King, in his own time Goya began to explore the possibilities of etching as a medium for social comment. Los Ca- prichos is his first series of printed works and shows a move towards an emphasis on tone over colour in his art practicei.

Los Caprichos combines both etching and aquatint techniques. The process of Etching involves coating a copper plate with a wax, acid-resistant ground, and then drawing into the ground with an etching needle. The exposed surface is ‘bitten’ into when the plate is immersed in an acid bath. The length of exposure can control the depth of the etched line and variations in toneii.

Aquatint, a similar process, can be used to create large even areas of tone without extra lines or crosshatching. The effect involves sprinkling an acid-resistant resin dust on to the plate. When it is immersed, the acid eats around the fine particles. Again, the texture and depth of tone is controlled by the amount of time the plate is immersed in acidiii .

Through a combination of etching and aquatint Goya produced remarkable variations in tone, demonstrating excellent control over light and dark areas in his work. In prints such as They are hot (Plate 13), characters are either illuminated or left in the shadows to dramatic effect.

[Plate 13] They are hot i Gudiol, J. 1985. Goya, Harry N. Abrams Inc, New York. ii www.pomona.edu/museum/collections/goya/techniques.html iii Stobart, J. 2001. Printmaking for Beginners, A&C Black Publishers Limited, London. 6 Lo s Ca p r i c h o s DISCOVERY TRAIL

Find this monkey. Who is he painting? Have you ever had your portrait painted? Who do you usually see painted portraits of?

Who is this parrot talking to? This print is called “The Golden Beak”. Have you ever heard that expression before? What do you think it might mean?

What happened to this girl’s shoes? Can you spot them somewhere in the picture? If not, can you imagine what happened to them?

Find these two donkeys. What’s different in this scene? What would you normally expect to see?

7 Lo s Ca p r i c h o s DISCOVERY TRAIL

Find these creatures. What are they? What has happened to them?

Find and explore this picture. Why is the boy being punished?

What is happening to this woman? Have you ever seen this type of hat before? What do you think it means?

Find this book. Who is reading it? What do you think the book is about?

8 GUIDE TO GOYA by Ann Janczuk and Nicola Marshall Murray High School Art Department

9 10 STRUCTURAL FRAME

Look at the compositions of each print. How are these works constructed? Traditionally etching produces linear works. Observe the balance of light and shade. The ‘new’ technique of aquatint enabled Goya to make subtle variations in tone that have a painterly quality.

The ‘Los Caprichos’ contain coded meaning. What might a donkey or ass symbolize? ______Explain the role of the ass in the following prints? Write the titles above each print.

37______39______40______42______

Plate 41. Neither more nor less What is Goya saying about his fellow artists and their patrons in this print?

11 Avarice

superstition gluttony

laziness

vanity ignorance

prostitution

12 POSTMODERN FRAME

Most of the works in this exhibition could be called postmodern. Goya was challenging the audience of his day to question social inequality, injustice, superstition, ignorance, greed and corruption in all levels of Spanish society.

Why did Goya withdraw the publication of Los Caprichos from sale after only 27 copies were sold?

Why did Goya change his intended front cover from The sleep of reason produces monsters [Plate 43] to a more conservative self portriat?

FURTHER RESEARCH

What is meant by the term ‘The Age of Enlightenment’?

Many artists have appropriated Goya’s etchings. Research the following contemporary artists......

Yasamasa Morimura Yinka Shonibare

13 On Wednesday, February 6, 1799, there appeared in the Diario de Madrid the following advertisement:

“A series of prints of whimsical subjects, invented and etched by Don Francisco Goya. The artist, persuaded that the censure of human errors and vices—though it seems to belong properly to oratory and poetry—may also be the object of painting, has chosen as appropriate subjects for his work, among the multitude of extravagances and follies which are common throughout civilized society, and among vulgar prejudices and frauds rooted in custom, ignorance, or interest, those which he has believed to be aptest to provide an occasion for ridicule and at the same time to exercise his imagination.

Since the greater part of the objects represented in this work are imaginary, it will not be rash to hope that its defects will obtain, perhaps, ample indulgence among the intelligent.

Considering that the artist has not followed the example of others, nor has found it possible to copy nature, although the imitation of nature is as difficult as it is admirable when it is achieved, one must allow that he will still deserve some esteem who, departing from her entirely, has been obliged to exhibit to the eye forms and attitudes which hitherto have existed only in the human mind bedimmed and confused by want of enlightenment or excited by the violence of unbridled passions.

It were to presume an excessive ignorance of the fine arts if we warned the public that in none of the compositions constituting this series has the artist proposed to ridicule the particular defects of this or that individual; which in truth would be an excessive restriction on the limits of talent and a misunderstanding of the means used by the arts of imitation to produce perfect works.

Painting, like poetry, selects in the universe whatever she deems most appropriate to her ends. She assembles in a single fantastic personage circumstances and features which nature distributes among many individuals. From this combination, ingeniously composed, results that happy imitation by virtue of which the artist earns the title of inventor and not of servile copyist.

On sale at No. 1 Calle del Desengaño, the perfume and liquor store, at the price of 320 reales for each set of 80 prints.”

(About $35 dollars in our currency)

Why do you suppose Goya thought it necessary to place an advertisment in this Madrid newspaper?

Who would have seen this advertisement? Who would have been in a position at this time to purchase one of Goya’s sets?

Consider the disclaimers that appear on the screen at the end of some television programs today. They usually state that the characters are fictional and that any similarities to actual people is coincidental.

14 Goya in the Classroom

15 In Los Caprichos, Goya often replaces people with animals that are symbolic of certain personality traits. Possibly a favourite was to draw rich and powerful people as donkeys - showing that they were foolish or stubborn. Owls and bats also appear a lot in Los Caprichos to symbolise someone’s fears or nightmares, or to show that a person had lost their mind.

Draw yourself as an animal that you think you’re most like. Are you a sleepy koala, an owl that secretly stays up all night, a fast runner like a cheetah or a cheeky monkey perhaps? Now do the same for a teacher or family member whose the opposite to you.

Scattered throughout Los Caprichos are drawings of monsters, goblins, demons and witches.

What stories do you know about these creatures? Write your own fantasy story featuring one or two of Goya’s monsters.

Ever wonder why the least fought over square in a game of handball is known as ‘Dunce’?

Research the traditional use of a ‘dunce cap’ for public humiliation throughout history, both in society and and in the classroom. Where did the practice come from?

In what cultures is it combined with the act of riding a donkey, sometimes backwards?

Imagine you are Goya in the 21st century.

What examples of greed, social inequality, injustice, ignorance, superstition or corruption upset you?

Create a satirical drawing that uses symbols to illustrate your opinion.